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Most people, when they think of social media, think of it as something that they use in their personal lives – they sign into Facebook and tell others about their day, post a picture that they took at an event over the weekend on Instagram, or post a tweet on Twitter sharing something of personal interest. Many professionals, including educators, do not think of social media as something that they can use at work, or, in the case of faculty, in their classrooms (Lepi, 2013). Further, many instructors are concerned with privacy issues, as well as “…the integrity of student submissions” (Lepi, 2013). In addition, many faculty have expressed concern over the fact that social media use in the classroom distracts students (Lepi, 2013). The tide is slowly changing, but many instructors still really do not understand how they can use social media in their courses.
Today, many online courses include a blog, a wiki, or both. Mainly, these tools are used for collaborative purposes. Other social media sites can be used for this purpose as well, such as Twitter and Facebook. Instructors can use a tool such as Google Hangout to gather remote students together to meet (Brien, 2012). Students can use a site such as Instagram or Pinterest to collect and share images (Brien, 2012). Students can utilize Twitter to follow experts, to share their thoughts regarding what is going on in class, or to discuss class concepts (Brien, 2012). Students can also use social media to share their own work with others, and to connect with those who hold similar interests (Brien, 2012).
One tool that I find particularly intriguing is for teaching purposes is Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging site, “…that allows people to share information in a real-time news feed, to like-minded individuals” (Mistry, 2011, p. 1292), in 140 characters or less. One of the many benefits of Twitter is that there are many people utilizing the site from all over the world. Twitter users come from a variety of different backgrounds and professions, and students can follow those experts whose work they admire (Yakin & Tinmaz, 2013, p. 209). Instructors can utilize Twitter to find resources to share with students. There is a never-ending supply of news and resources at the students’/instructor’s disposal. “As students followed others who might be knowledgeable on a specific topic, the probability of learning occurring increased by means of shared and created knowledge capital between the followed people and students” (Yakin & Tinmaz, 2013, p. 213). In addition to acquiring resources, students can also share their own work, developing their own online presence.
I feel that the most useful attribute of Twitter is shared knowledge. As an adjunct faculty member, I teach a variety of marketing courses, including Principles of Marketing, Global Marketing, Advertising, Services Marketing, Sales, Marketing Research and Consumer Behavior. As a user of Twitter myself, I can attest to the fact that there is no shortage of marketing experts who share a great deal of valuable information on Twitter. That said, any lessons/activities I would create would most certainly focus on using Twitter for this purpose. One such activity could include having students follow experts in their field of study, reporting each week on something that they learned from one, or more, of the experts they are following.
Questions for consideration:
References
Brien, L. (2012). Six ways to use social media in education. Retrieved May 27, 2014 from http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2012/04/six-ways-to-use-social-media-in-education/.
Lepi, K. (2013). How social media is being used in education. Retrieved May 27, 2014 at http://www.edudemic.com/social-media-in-education/.
Mistry, V. (2011). Critical care training: using Twitter as a teaching tool. British Journal of Nursing, Vol. 20, No. 20, pp. 1292-1296.
Yakin, I. & Tinmaz, H. (2013). Using Twitter as an instructional tool: a case study in higher education. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 12, Issue 4, pp. 209-218.