Ready, Set, Tweet!

How many of us college students would like to be told by our professors to tweet or use Twitter during an in-class lecture?

Dr. Monica Rankin of the University of Texas is now requesting her students to do just this. Rankin noticed a recurring trend in her large classes-lack of participation among her students.

Rankin decided to try a little experiment using Twitter in one of her many classes. The idea was to allow students to use Twitter to ask questions and make comments using Twitter throughout their class time. Mankin was able to watch this love stream of content and react to it throughout the class.

Not only could she see the content, but students could see the dialogue as well which helped with another recurring problem, participation outside the classroom. Mankin and other professors find it hard to keep dialogue going with their students after class ends.

Twitter has enabled Mankin to keep a running dialogue with here students and has also allowed students to hold conversations with each other.

Students have also begun to use their twitter conversations as study aids. Because of the easy traceability of these conversations, students are finding it valuable to take the small amount of time needed to look back on them.

This use of Twitter is just one more example of how valuable social media is becoming in our society. Twitter is an excellent tool that universities are beginning to use to bridge the gap between professor and student.

By Bethany Maddox