Terrified tutors to top tweeters

Staff Development Event

Terrified Tutors to Top Tweeters
Paul Smalley – SOLSTICE Fellow Edge Hill University
Course Leader Undergraduate RE teaching courses

27th November 2012


This session:
my story
setting up a Twitter account,
using a ‘client’ such as Tweetdeck to manage
accounts,
‘Following’ –rules and etiquette
how to use Twitter with students (my example)

@PabloPedantic


• Twitter – Active, Passive or Newby

@PabloPedantic


The following story..
@stephenfry
@dgtherunner
@gsiemens and others
@beccimcfc @LMColquhoun @thirst4thehurst
@TheIrishPotato @hannahfitzx @Matty1000
and many more…

@PabloPedantic


• Journalists and academics direct followers to
longer blogs or articles
• Undergraduate wider reading
• Connectivist Paradigm (Siemens 2005, 2006)
• ‘Educator as Concierge’ (Bonk 2007, Siemens
2008)

@PabloPedantic


Principles of Connectivism: (Siemens, 2006: 31)

• Learning and knowledge require diversity of opinions to present the whole…and to
permit selection of best approach.
• Learning is a network formation process of connecting specialized nodes or
information sources.
• Knowledge rests in networks.
• Knowledge may reside in non-human appliances , and learning is enabled/facilitated
by technology.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
• Learning and knowing are constant, on going processes (not end states or products).
• Ability to see connections and recognize patterns and make sense between
fields, ideas, and concepts is the core skill for individuals today.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning
activities.
• Decision-making is learning. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming
information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer
now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations i n the information climate
affecting the decision.

@PabloPedantic


Rinaldo et al (2011) suggest three uses for Twitter in
the virtual classroom:
Firstly as a demonstration of marketing techniques
(their study involved students on a marketing
degree),
secondly as a micro-publishing outlet for the
lecturer and
thirdly as a method of communicating with
students to make administrative announcements.
@PabloPedantic


• October 2011 to March 2012.
• @PabloPedantic
• 2011 - two articles each day
• Tweets were related to religion, education or
religious education
• #k23re – since March #REatEH

@PabloPedantic


• How?
• Sign up to Twitter
• Follow people.
• Re-tweet what they say that is interesting.
• Add a #hashtag
• Say your own interesting stuff
• Other tools available: Tweetdeck

@PabloPedantic


Where to start?
www.twitter.com
Who to follow?
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/20
11/09/02/academic-tweeters-your-suggestions-
in-full/
How to manage?
www.tweetdeck.com
@PabloPedantic


• 18 Year 2 Undergraduates
• 3 were already regular Tweeters,
• 4 were passive tweeters and
• 11 had never used Twitter before.
• All but one of the students owned internet-
enabled smartphones
• All had internet access via computer.
• Widget in Learning Edge

@PabloPedantic


• Focus Group of 8

@PabloPedantic


• Before the Project
• little direction as to what to read
• Assessment based;
• wider reading using search engines such as Google to
research a topic, or finding a link off a ‘general’ website
such as bbc.co.uk.
• I might happen to come across something on the BBC
website and follow a link.
• If I’m honest, in terms of wider reading, I wouldn’t
know where to look so I just did what was needed for
the assignment

@PabloPedantic


• The English Baccalaureate

@PabloPedantic


• One month in...
• I didn’t know how to use Twitter but now I’m
following loads of education people rather
than me mates and things.

@PabloPedantic


• I was on Twitter, but my following has
changed: I use Facebook for social things and
use Twitter because all of it is like
educational, religion, anything like of interest
to me; it’s not really a social network where
you network with people that you like see
everyday anyway.

@PabloPedantic


• ease of access.
• Yeah I just click on it; you know the link’s
already there so it is easier to access.
• As someone who likes Twitter – you’re on
there anyway and it comes up.
• I like it because I’m on Twitter - any time I’m
bored I’m on it.

@PabloPedantic


• I think it’s been very useful and I think it is nice
that you are respecting us and sharing all the
current affairs in education with
us, because, without that we wouldn’t be
discussing things that are going to affect us

@PabloPedantic


• I really feel you are trying to educate us

@PabloPedantic


• Six months later
• When you first started, I didn’t know how to
use it at all and now I am always on it.
• I was into it before and I’ve read things that
you’ve Tweeted but because of the things I’ve
read I’ve started following other people, so it
sort of brings up some
interesting, different, sort of newsy articles
that you find yourself reading that you
wouldn’t normally.
@PabloPedantic


• Usage was related to student workload
• When we have assignments I don’t look it but
when we don’t have assignments I’m on it all
the time.
• If I’m writing an essay might go on Twitter a
few times as a break

@PabloPedantic


• Access via smartphones
• Work/life blur (ClearSwift 2011)
• Volume – search #k23re

@PabloPedantic


• Choosing what to read
• These included the time of day
• a break in the flow of the days duties,
• ‘looking interesting’.
• Re-Tweeting

@PabloPedantic


• The Archbishop of Canterbury
• Judaism assignment
• I like knowing the stuff that might concern us
now or in the future. I wouldn’t have known
any of the stuff that is going on if it wasn’t for
Twitter.

@PabloPedantic


• Conclusion – Connected Learners

@PabloPedantic


• More how to…
http://issuu.com/amymollett/docs/twitter_gu
ide_academics

@PabloPedantic


Bibliography
Bonk, C. (2007). USA today leads to tomorrow: Teachers as online concierges and can Facebook pioneer save face?
http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/10/usa‐today‐leads‐to‐tomorrow‐teachers‐as.html [accessed 11th
October 2011]
ClearSwift (2011) Work Life Web 2011
https://info.clearswift.com/express/clients/clearhq/papers/Clearswift_report_WorkLifeWeb_2011.pdf [accessed
6th June 2012]
Gillie, C. (2011) English Baccalaureate House of Commons Library SN/SP/6045 15th November
www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06045.pdf [accessed 8th June 2012]
Pleil, T (2008) Social Media in PR Education http://www.slideshare.net/apalme2003/social-media-in-pr-
education/ [accessed 7th October 2011]
Rinaldo, S. B., Tapp, S., and Laverie, D. A. (2011) Learning by Tweeting: Using Twitter as a Pedagogical
Tool, Journal of Marketing Education 33(2) 193– 203
Siemens, G. (2005) Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/networks.htm [accessed 2nd June 2012]
Siemens, G. (2006) Knowing Knowledge http://www.elearnspace.org/KnowingKnowledge_LowRes.pdf [accessed
21st March 2012]
Siemens, G (2008) Learning and Knowing in Networks: Changing roles for Educators and Designers, Paper
presented to ITFORUM, http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper105/Siemens.pdf [accessed 7th October 2011]
Wheeler, S (2009) ‘Teaching with Twitter’, Learning with ‘e’s
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-with-twitter.html [accessed 8th October 2011]
Wright, N (2010) Twittering in teacher education: reflecting on practicum experiences, Open Learning: The Journal
of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 25:3, 259-265
@PabloPedantic

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