Twitter and other mobile tools for teaching and learning

TWITTER and Other Mobile-izing Tools for Teaching and Learning Presented by: Biray Alsac Mesa Community College biray@mail.mc.maricopa.edu Cell Phone Use (Statistics) • 255.4 million wireless subscribers in US1 • 84% of total U.S. population1 • 35% of cell phone owners send and receive text messages2 • 48.1 billion text-messages sent per month1 1 2 http://www.ctia.org/advocacy/research/index.cfm/AID/10323 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Cell_phone_study.pdf Cell Phone Use (Applications*) • Campus Security Alert system • Communication among students (Instant messaging) * Specifically regarding text-messaging on campus Cell Phone Use (Applications+) • Teacher bulletins or class reminders • Text-Messaging based surveys & Polls • Building community outside classroom + Examples of applications in the classrooms Bulletins and Class Reminders • Textmarks.com – it’s FREE! • Students subscribe to class text feed by typing CLASS** to 41411 • Students get class updates via text on phone every time teacher creates new alerts • No need to know student cell phone numbers ** ‘CLASS’ is just an example word, teachers can choose any word for their class when setting up account TM-based Surveys & Polls • • • • PollEverywhere.com* Create live polls Survey students Gain instant feedback from class • Similar to using clickers in classroom • No need to know student cell phone numbers * Free and paid subscriptions available – see website for feature details Twitter* – What is it? Answers the question: What are you doing?” • Mini-updates in 140 characters of text (or less) • Microblog of whatever you want it to be… * http://www.twitter.com Twitter – Teaching & Learning • Create bulletins or class reminders • Build student connection beyond classroom • Students become part of a global community • No need to know student cell phone numbers* * Students must update Twitter setting to link incoming messages to phone. “HealthyBee” An example of a Twitter used by an instructor for a college health class Create profile so students & colleagues can follow you. Keep your updates public or private. BULLETINS & CLASS REMINDERS HES100: Remember to bring a nutrition label to class. Send updates on class assignments, announcements, website URLs, or general info. All “tweets” are included on this timeline (most recent on top) so you never miss an update. This is the visual list of who you are following (aka your students) STUDENT CONNECTION BEYOND CLASSROOM Create public chatter Thanks for bringing it up @dncr4u3, the quiz will stay among your students. available for one more day A Tweets with “@” plus username means it’s a public reply to a specific user. Promote classroom community by suggesting your students also follow each other STUDENT CONNECTION BEYOND CLASSROOM You can send a private message directly to a student, too. Student will receive your direct message via: Email Twitter Cell Phone (if activated) GLOBAL COMMUNITY Suggest that students find other Twitter users to follow related to their interests or class topics. i.e. – a search for “health” found many health-related feeds, such as BBC Health and American Cancer Society who post news on their Twitter feed) -andA search for “fitness” found professionals, such as, personal trainers, body builders, and fitness enthusiasts Grab the Twitter code and embed your updates or timeline on your blog or social network. Twitter - Mashups Schedule updates and reminders to your students in advance so you won’t miss a beat – er – a tweet Twitter - Mashups Put all your students into one “crowd” and follow everyone ata-glance on the web. (see also TwitterCamp) Twitter – Example of Teacher Uses Announcement Communication with students Class Reinforcements Discussion Prompts & Additional Follow-ups Task Reminders Twitter – Example of Student Uses Most health-related feeds post URLs that link to a blog post or news article. Students were asked to follow the feed & stay current on news. This tweet sums up what they learned. Personal Comment Health-related feeds Response to a discussion prompt Student feeds Twitter – Class Observations*… • 42% considered themselves ‘High’ to ‘Average’ proficiency with computer technologies • 78.6% found using Twitter (RSS) ‘very easy to easy’ • Most students used Twitter only for responding to ‘discussion prompts’ • Most students used web to tweet (not phones) • 69.2% said they will NOT continue using Twitter * Observations based on 30 students in a 2-year college / institution. This was just a pilot assignment. Twitter – Student Feedback (pros) • • • • • • • Familiar with new technology Easy-access “…the information that was provided throughout the semester.” “…so many different people or groups that are signed up for it.” “I felt involved in my class.” Following other Twitter “I liked that you could read other peoples' posts about facts.” Twitter – Student Feedback (cons) • Technical difficulties (searching for other Twitter feeds, posting a profile picture, etc) Credibility of health-related feeds “Thought the whole thing was a real waste of time.” “That you could only type about 140 letters. That was not enough to actually tell anybody anything.” • • • References http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/ 10/23/why-twitter-isnt-a-waste-of-time/ http://crowdstatus.com http://tweetlater.com http://Tweetstats.com http://Tweetscan.com or http://metweets.com Check out the wiki for ‘all-things’ Twitter http://twitter.pbwiki.com http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/h ome/2008/twitter-for-academia/