Twitter Within The Classroom

In today’s world, more than 80% of faculty members at colleges use some form of social media. Some sites such as YouTube have been widely accepted while others like Twitter are a bit slower to catch on as a teaching tool. In the same survey just mentioned only 2% of professors said that they use the blogging site. An instructor at Northern Illinois University reports that he uses it as more bulletin board to inform students of important news rather than chatting. An associate professor states that Twitter can go beyond the boundaries of the classroom to grow knowledge by socializing as information can only be gained by passing it from one person to another.  Here are five unique and innovative ways to enhance education using Twitter.

1. Creating A Personal Brand:

An associate director and professor created a college course to teach students what systems like Twitter can do from the perspective of branding. They were required to create a personal brand then decide what type of voice and content to express to the online community. They did the same with a professional brand for an existing company. It showed how students to benefit their own lives as well as how social media can help companies brand themselves.

2. Learning To Be Concise:

Writing a long paper pertaining to a specific topic can require a great deal of research and time however creating a response to this topic in 140 characters or less as that is Twitter’s limit is also something that would require great pondering. One professor requires students in his political science classes to summarize important political texts without going over the character limit. Students had a positive response saying that it forced them to condense their thoughts and look at the overall point of a particular text.

3. Personifying Characters On Twitter

Popular series like Twilight gain popularity in culture through its internet presence on social media. Students from a literature class were each given a character from the series to personify using Twitter and turn out to be much more effective than just sitting in a classroom discussing the characters according to the teacher.

4. Teaching Executives About Social Media

The goal of a course at a particular University in California is to give students social media tools that they can use in the business world. The class teaches students how to act and in turn react in real time using social media. One of the students said the course was “nothing more than life changing” as she knows it is a game changer in how she consumes information like many others.

5. Bringing Clients To Class

For an Entrepreneurial Strategy course at DePaul University lecture notes are available on Twitter. In the class, students consult and aid entrepreneurs in an attempt to grow local business. With the notes being available to students and public it is better for students to connect and also form relationships with the business community. Clients have reached out to the instructor and may not have found the class if it were not for Twitter. A former student mentioned gave his input saying “I honestly think this class has so much more value now than if we had taken this before Twitter existed”. The class now has a voice and opportunity to gain more experience before graduation.

What other uses can you think of for twitter in schools?

US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.

Smart Boards Losing To Tablets

It would seem that devices and tools like electronic whiteboards come with a hefty cost to budgets especially when they require repair. Back in 1983, “Steve Jobs said that one day we would be carrying a small, fully functional and networked computer device around anywhere” - Keith Fowlkes. Now there is a way for people to research and develop teaching methods from home, the office, the classroom and even a plane. This technology can do a majority of what is needed for education while remaining compact like a folder. When computers became common in the classroom in the 90’s they were not very reliable and often wasted a great deal of time for students and staff. Projectors and smart boards of the day were often out of calibration causing much frustration. Going into the 2000’s they improved however their efficiency was still very much lacking and getting them to work properly absorbed significant class time. Today though, tablet computing is a reality within financial reach for many teachers and students. Staff members can now literally carry their work with them on the go. Within a touch of a button it is possible to have access to the internet, music, books and all kinds of documents. It is simple for faculty to take their tablet and hook it up to a video projector then draw, highlight, or interact with what is on the screen without needing a smart board’s aid. Users can share their screens with the instructor in real time and vice versa. This is the higher education many have been waiting for and it is likely that IT funding will shift in favor of tablets. 

They are a ways off from perfection though and the industry will have to continue to adjust and adapt to the constantly evolving world. Applications require significant processing power and there has to be cloud services which can handle it. Audio/visual editing and statistical software are just a few examples of these types of services. Apps have to be able to support the many different tablet operating systems. The downside to the devices mobility is size so some may require attachment monitors for those who have dwindling eyesight. A standardization of wireless video connectivity should be addressed too so basically we need a web conferencing service designed for classrooms with multiple tablet types. One other issue that isn’t a simple fix is file systems meaning where people’s documents and other files are stored. Google drive, skydrive, and iCloud are a few services that exist but there is no single file system allowing users to edit in multiple apps. Along with this is the security for these storage systems as hacking is a concern of many. What are your thoughts?

"InformationWeek News Connects The Business Technology Community."InformationWeek. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.