Teaching with Twitter - an open source teaching resource - part 1
In my new role here at the University of Wollongong, we’re experimenting with Twitter used in combination with extension Twitwall as a teaching and learning resource.
The “big” subject we’re using it for is a first-year unit called “New Media: Histories, Industries, Practices.” The teaching team here is large, and there are a lot of tutorials, so some deft logistics are needed, especially since a lot of students will be using this platform for the first time.
This means developing appropriate introductory resources for students from a wide range of backgrounds so they can engage with the service. They need to be able to hit the ground running, because they’ll be doing their assessment and some class discussion using this platform. So I’ve written a guide for students that I’ve uploaded here. Feedback welcome.
There has been some discussion among colleagues about using open source alternatives like http://identi.ca I am open to open source, but I don’t see this as a situation where it’s a clear substitution for Twitter. When it come sot social technologies, it’s pretty clear that part of the affordances of the technology are to do with the scale of its uptake.
As I say in the guide:
The reasons that we’re using Twitter are:
1. It’s lightweight and flexible –it allows us to talk to each other during and between classes, to share information easily (while retaining our rights to IP), and used together with Twitwall it allows us to integrate these with a platform that supports longer pieces. We’re hoping that using these together as a technological infrastructure will mean that you’ll learn from each other as well as from us, and that learning won’t just happen in classes but between them, too. Also, compared to other platforms we could have chosen, it’s very easy to learn how to use Twitter.
2. Twitter offers us access to a large and inclusive networked conversation, and we are using it at a key moment, when it is currently undergoing mass uptake. It’s currently frequently in the news, and people often use as it as an example when they’re thinking about the promises and anxieties that attach themselves to social media. We’re hoping that during the course of this subject you’ll learn through doing, and become more critical users of social networking technologies. But also, as you become more integrated into the world of Twitter, you’ll be able to directly access information from debates between significant thinkers in our field of study as they happen. They offer a great way of bringing all of us into contact with a networked information environment.
3. Learning how to use social media is a significant element in contemporary information literacy. You don’t need to come to university in order to use Twitter, but we can help you put it in a longer context, and help you use it in ways that are critical, smart and directed at enhancing course content and objectives.
There is a bit of stuff at the end about privacy. In a teaching context, it’s important to make students aware of how to protect their privacy without overdoing the dangers. I’m sure you’ll let me know if I’ve gotten that balance right.
A little more to do on Twitwall before the guide is complete, but I look forward to your thoughts on this first step.
cool post, guide looks great, nice to see a couple of typos
the layout was a bit funky, hope your not using word ! good to see a CC licence. I hope to hear more about what you/they gained from using twitter, having recently worked on a module which used a number of blog tools, It would be great to compare details.
Looks like an interesting teaching project.
The guide for students was also interesting. I could not help wondering about the issue of privacy however, you note: - “you have complete control over who can see your updates, and you can block users if necessary”. This is an important point but there is also the issue of the corporation and privacy. I think this early stage might be the point to send the student users to the privacy policy and explicitly ask them to read it. For example the Business Policy
“Twitter may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including your personally identifiable information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy. You will have the opportunity to opt out of any such transfer if the new entity’s planned processing of your information differs materially from that set forth in this Privacy Policy”
I don’t want to make too much of this issue with twitter, as facebook or mySpace might be a bigger worry at the mo. However, by ‘requiring’ the students to use a third party platform we (’the educators’) might be opening up pandora’s box. What happens in the future when the mature media-savvy adult realizes that Ruppie Murdoch III’s recent purchase of daughter-of-twitter is very bad for them and want to sue someone. They might well remember that they were introduced to the site by their university
Interested to know what you think..
Gavin, Adam, thanks for the comments.
Yeah Adam, it’s word. Still waiting on IT to “implement” a copy of pages for me
Gavin, I take your point, and it’s a good one. I still think that Twitter’s licensing agreement is exemplary. It seems to me that they’re covering themselves for a situation when they would no longer have control over the information, and they’re explicitly offering an opt-out. I’m pretty happy with the level of information they ask for too - it’s really just a name and an email address.
It’s worth making students aware of possible dangers, but I still think Twitter represents such a big opportunity as a teaching resource - for exposing students to a big networked conversation, for making them savvy users of social technologies, and for the teaching affordances it offers - that the downside risks are worth taking.
Obviously I’ll have a more informed view by semester’s end!
Hi J,
Thanks.
We had a similar conversation when Marcus Leaning gave a RIMAD research seminar on Media Studies 2.0 awhile back.
I think networking is a great way to open up the classroom. Likewise, I regard students as adults so I am not overly keen to ‘protext’ them. However, I can’t help wondering whether some things are best kept on local servers. Do you think that the notional cost/benefit for level one students pays dividends in this case?
Looking to the future, I think it might be worth talking to the techies to see whether they can’t build you a ‘tweach’ app which mashes to twitter when it needs to but still acts like a true ‘walled garden’. Maybe something that talks to a wiki?
Interesting stuff
G
Hi again Gavin. What you’ve described in your last par is exactly what I don’t want to do. Walled garden teaching apps miss the point in my opinion - I reckon they only teach students literacies and skills that are applicable to other walled gardens. I reckon they might as well get out of the kiddie pool straight away.
I share some of your concerns, but I think it’s easy to overstate the dangers. It’s also an open question as to whether Unis are more “trustworthy” repositories for data than things like Twitter.
But it’s good to have this discussion. I imagine it has a while to go yet.
Oh and Gavin, you’re pretty optimistic about enlisting tech staff to do something like that! They’re not all like Adam unfortunately
@Jason - Thanks
I guess I wanna jump back in on this thread although I have just looked at version 2.
I agree with Jason about the non walled approach very bad, however I found that using a walled blog approach within blackboard to get the students up and running was great and very few decided to just link to there own blogger/wordpress accounts, however getting them to keep blogging after in a non walled way was actually really hard ! almost impossible, in the UK “if it aint graded it aint worth it” however I think many students now look at FB and the like in a slightly different way which is good enough for me
Hi Jason, OT from your post but relevant to comments thread I hope. (Twitter is a new toy for me, I don’t want to associate it with teaching & research, not yet anyhow.)
I had a sad experience with an open course blog last year. I expected too much of the students in terms of their ability to handle comments of all kinds from people outside the university. I should have remembered my own sensitivity to less than laudatory comments when I started blogging. So for now I’ve gone back to the walled garden.
Hi Jason, OT from your post but relevant to comments thread I hope. (Twitter is a new toy for me, I don’t want to associate it with teaching & research, not yet anyhow.)
I had a sad experience with an open course blog last year. I expected too much of the students in terms of their ability to handle comments of all kinds from people outside the university. I should have remembered my own sensitivity to less than laudatory comments when I started blogging. So for now I’ve gone back to the walled garden….