March 18, 2008
More on Academic Twittering: Breaking Down the Classroom Walls
We’ve had plenty of interest in our coverage of Twitter (and other micro-blogging services) at colleges, and so it’s worth noting that David Parry, who has been a leading experimenter in this area, posted a useful follow-up post yesterday on the AcademHack blog.
Mr. Parry, an assistant professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas, expands on his philosophy for using Twitter, and offers some fresh pointers to others who have experimented with the service.
For instance, he expands on a point he made during our recent Webcam interview, describing what he means by using Twitter to break down the classroom walls:
“Students attend college where their identity as a student is just part of what they do and who they are. Many of them have jobs, commute to school, etc., and thus the social aspect of the campus life has changed,” he writes. “If this is the case then these ‘new’ ways of socializing such as Facebook and MySpace are where students are forming their learning communities, ones which do not entirely, perhaps only minimally, overlap with their classroom experience. Thus to extend the walls of the classroom, make education relevant to all aspects of students lives rather than just what they do four-five hours a day we need to think of ways to extend the ways we form and foster learning communities.”
Yet many readers gave mixed reaction to Mr. Parry’s basic argument in our most recent Wired Campus post on the topic.
“My experience with using Twitter and anything similar — blogs, Facebook, etc. — for academic purposes is that students just think it is weird, creepy, and geeky in the negative sense,” one reader said. “And they think that it’s inappropriate for me to be invading “their” space. Within two days of telling my students that I had a Facebook page, I was blocked from all of them.”
Thanks to everyone who wrote in — and keep us posted on your own experience with micro-blogging. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Tuesday March 18, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Social media is about people coming to you and making people want to do that. Having a Facebook because you think students might want you to have a Facebook is not going to work because you’re not being “honest,” you’re trying to fit into what you think they want. Having a Facebook because you like the interface and can connect with people builds your own identity and doesn’t base that identity on who you think your students are.
You don’t use social media because it’s there and someone told you to get with the times, you use it because you get something out of it; it’s about liking it and using it because it does something for YOU , not for other people. I wish everyone I knew blogged and twittered but some people think it’s silly and a waste of their time and so they miss out on that part of my identity.
Social media, IMHO, is about potential, like volts. If the potential is there, if there is a need to be filled, if there is communication that is begging to happen, then it will…. but having more tools available does not guarantee a potential different just like have a wire does not necessitate electron flow.
joshcanhelp.com
— Josh C Mar 19, 02:20 PM #
TWITTER SUCKS!!!
Stay out of my life — I could careless what is happening in yours, especially nonsense like, “Oh I made a bagel” “Im outside now”
blah blah blah
Your life is just as boring as mine, why would I want to be updated with boredom?
— danknerd Mar 19, 04:13 PM #
Josh C is dead on.
Use it for YOU first, and if it works you won’t be disappointed. If it doesn’t work for you, drop it. Simple.
Social spaces in and of themselves are not restricted to age groups or other demographics, but I tend to think of them like partitioned spaces with defined but permeable walls. You can always take a peak, but bear in mind you may not be welcome in the sandbox, biker bar, or frat party…And to quote Stuart Smalley, “That’s Okay!”
— MontanaTechnoGadfly Mar 19, 04:41 PM #