More college professors embracing social media
By IUNA DONES · Daily Trojan
It is not uncommon for USC students to spend more time surfing social media sites like Facebook and Twitter than paying attention to lectures, professors are finding, ways to use those sites as teaching tools with the classroom.
A recent study by the Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson found more than 80 percent of college faculty are incorporating some form of social media in their teaching.
Twitter in particular has found its way into USC classrooms because it allows for a constant, ongoing conversation between students, teachers and the rest of the world.
Social media tools like Twitter can enhance learning because they provide the ability to interact with anyone with an account, according to Robert Hernandez, assistant professor of professional practice in the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.
“It’s a perfect place for a learning environment because people are constantly sharing knowledge,” Hernandez said. “It’s a different way of thinking that everyone in the room has different experiences and we can all learn from each other.”
According to the study, more than 40 percent of college faculty have students view or read information on social media as part of the classroom assignments, and 20 percent of teachers require students to interact on social media sites.
I want to get hip with all the social media. I want to reach students at their level.
ReplyDeleteBut I also don't.
I'm imagining what my proffies in the 70s and 80s would have said if Twitter had been around.
"Twaddle."
And they would have been right.
What the hell happened in that first paragraph?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I hate using social media (or even Blackboard) for class. I use FB in my personal life, but for class? I see no point. We need to talk more in class and in person. I frequently miss interacting with real people. But I'm sure this is the wave of the future. Disappointing.
And of course I promise to be up at 4 a.m. to answer your urgent tweet about the assignment.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the first sentence sounds like it was written (or proofread) by someone who needs to turn the damn media off and read.
ReplyDeleteI did all the whiz-bang computer stuff. Guess what? It sucks, and students don't necessarily appreciate having their classes criss-cross with their social lives. Now I am all about overheads on the document camera, markup on your hard copy, and reading aloud. This is not because I am lazy. It's because you can't write easily on a PowerPoint slide if a good idea comes along, so it's not at all interactive; because students read passively; because they are deaf to the sounds of the English language. They can dick around with social media all they want on their own time. I'm in charge of teaching them different ways of knowing the world.
I'm all up for online resources, webpages, interacting modules, images, videos. Lovin it.
ReplyDeleteBut 140 characters is not going to help anyone understand Chaucer or recreate a lab project.
And students know this. They know that fb and twitter accounts are FILLER. They applaud your use of it, they get through that much more class without having to do insightful time-consuming work.
I use online material all the time. But stop pretending, folks. FB and Twitter are not teaching tools.
And there are still a number of students who don't have twitter or fb. I don't imagine they would be too happy if they were forced to get it for a class.
ReplyDelete