Slide from a presentation at the National Economics Teaching Association (Austin, TX; October 24 2013)

1. Tweeting Your Way to Improved
#Writing, #Reflection, and
#Community
Alice Louise Kassens
Roanoke College
kassens@roanoke.edu
NETA Fall 2013
Austin, TX

3. What is Twitter?
O Online
O Accessed through
microblogging
technology
O Post “tweets” up to
140 characters
O ~200 million active
users, ~400 million
tweets/day
O Free service,
www.twitter.com
variety of portals:
cellphone, computer
, tablet
O Tweets can include
pictures and videos
O User’s twitter page
can be customized
using templates

4. @kassensecon122

5. Twitter in the classroom
O Twitter has been
shown to improve:
O Engagement
O Participation
O Writing
O Community
O Learning
O Memory

6. Twitter and writing/reflection
O 140 character limit
forces succinctness
O “electronic editor”
O Brevity of tweets =
powerful tool for
teaching writing &
other
communication
skills
#writing

7. Twitter and writing/reflection
O Writing about
economics=vital
test of
understanding
O Challenge in 100level courses
O A key to good
writing=developing
an argument
#reflection

8. What we did
O Social media
project
O ~25 student avg.
O 15% of course
grade
O Computer lab
O Screen projecting
Twitter feed
O Unique hashtag
(#kassensecon122
)
O Ten graded tweets
O Rubric developed
with class
O Assignments both
in and out of class
period
O Review tweets in
class

9. Preparation (in class)
O Brief introduction to Twitter (many
students had never used Twitter)
O Set up accounts
O 10-15 minutes to personalize page, follow,
tweet
O Develop rubric: “What makes a good
tweet?”
Faculty
should
already be
familiar with
Twitter

10. Preparation (in class)
Twitter grading rubric

11. Sample assignment
O State of the Union
Address 2013
Watch address
w/in 24 hours of
event
2. Tweet several
comments or
questions
3. One tweet
graded
1.
O Purpose
O Increase student
awareness of
current issues
O Apply course
material to these
issues
O Communicate in
thoughtful/concise
manner

12. Sample assignment
…
…

13. Sample assignment

14. Unintended consequence
O Twitter expands the
classroom beyond
the physical walls
O Global
conversations
O “guest speakers”
O Community can be
developed in
typically isolated
experiences
#communit
y

15. Suggestions
O Hold class in lab
O Establish ground rules
O Allow practice tweets
O Select unique #
O Grade tweets via
student page
O Follow your students
O Assign a significant
weight to assignment
Benefits
O Expand
classroom, become
part of a larger
community
O Refine reflection &
writing skills w/o a
large written
assignment
O Increase engagement
O Demonstrate
responsible use of
social media

16. Difficulties
O Challenging with
large classes
O Currently are not
reliable applications
to collect tweets for
a record
Cautions
O Professor should be
comfortable with the
technology
O Pick a unique
hashtag for all
assignments
O Keep tweets to
course material