What are the benefits of incorporating microblogging activities in an online course?
Some benefits of incorporating microblogging can assist in providing quick notes and changes to a particular assignment that may be due and or changes made to the assignment. It can be used to provide various track hash tags for links associated with the assignment, as well as reminders for quizzes, tests, etc. that may be due.
As a finance instructor I could have the students tweet on a specific stock on a daily basis and share with their colleagues via twitter. I can also share various and current notes that I may want my students to immediately be aware of or respond to. Students can engage with other professionals in the field as well as chat with different investors.
Lois,
You make a VERY important point. You need to develop your communication channels and promote them. Adding more and more without evaluating their effectiveness does overwhelm you and the students and nothing is communicated.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Andrew,
It sounds like you are a believer! I agree with you. It teaches students to communicate succinctly. It can be a powerful tool. Students are tied to their phones. . . .
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I'm concerned that adding one more communication vehicle in addition to the ones my university already offer students (announcements, learning materials, discussion board posts, instant messages, and email)will just further overwhelm students to the point that they shut down almost everything.
Kelly, I think the real benefit of microblogging is for me to allow another communications channel to open up between the student and I. I can tweet changes or updates to assignments or provide refs for assignments, if I would like the student to provide an an opinion via poll on if they are liking "Determine Knowledge" in Intellipath I do that as well. The benefits are numerous!
Leti ,
You and I are kindred spirits! I agree with you. I teach a technical writing class and the wordiness is so frustrating. I actually use a book called fat free writing! Twitter does help. Also, look at todaysmeet.com. It is backchanneling and it can be used similarly.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Kelly-
What I find most interesting is that we are seeking a short, more focused response. Throughout the entire class, they are told that their essays should be x amount of pages with substantial content to prove their understanding of the topic. Then we incorporate Twitter, for example, and ask for responses less than a 140 characters. I do believe it prevents them from being "too wordy" and losing sight of the actual assignment and what we are looking for within the essay. I am sure it makes it easier for the instructors to determine their understanding of the information, as well.
Leti Ramirez
Linda,
I agree with you. Linda, I hope your institution is aware of the creative ideas you have with learning and technology. You need to share!!!!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Microblogging enables all students, who have a smart phone (and most students have them), to get involved with mobile learning.
Microblogging such as Twitter, for example, can be used to post responses/answers to an instructor's question in the classroom. This would help students who are somewhat shy to participate in class discussion without feeling the potential embarrassment of getting the incorrect answer.
Martin,
True, how many times do people IMS to each other in the course of a work day. Students need to develop the short succinct writing to help them professionally.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The true benefit comes from the ability to manage time within words and meaning. In the hospitality industry or any industry for that fact, time is of the essence and getting your point and objective across in a meaningful manner without confusion is a huge key to success.
As technology continues to speed through all industries our decisions and leadership abilities have to keep up as well!!!
Andrea,
Thanks for providing a reference. I use it to teach succinct communication. It is a great tool if used appropriately.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The benefits of microblogging activities within online courses is countless, in my personal opinion. Since messages may be less than 200 characters, SMS, instant messaging with clients and in real time, the higher education community has really sparked a high interest in this tool, in the classroom.
Text categorization for two types of microblogging questions asked in the classroom include relevant and irrelevant questions. "Empirical results and analysis show that using personalization together with question text leads to better categorization accuracy than using text alone. It is also beneficial to utilize the correlation between questions and available lecture materials as well as the correlation between questions asked in a lecture (Cetintas, S., 201l).
Reference
S. Cetintas, Luo Si, H. Aagard, K. Bowen, M. Cordova-Sanchez, "Microblogging in a Classroom: Classifying Students' Relevant and Irrelevant Questions in a Microblogging-Supported Classroom," IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 292-300, Oct.-Dec. 2011, doi:10.1109/TLT.2011.14
Carla,
You are right! Even when students are blogging they should be held to communication expectations. I make students email me in appropriate grammar and punctuation. I want it to be a good habit!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Mark:
Great point. Sometimes I think our students believe that their world is the "real" one and the other doesn't exist .As a former English teacher, communication (effective) is the key to a successful conversation, albeit a blog, a discussion.
Joan,
I hold students accountable for their proper communication. That is part of the grading when I use this type of assessment.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I understand the benefits of text and tweeting language, but I am concerned about the number of people who forget how to speak and write in proper English
Sloan,
When you do the microblogging you can set standards that require good grammar and punctuation, and good writing. This will prepare them for the needed to be professional in other social media such as LinkedIn.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Tanya,
I like your thinking. It does change the environment of the online course. Sometimes that helps. Remember when the teacher showed a film in grade school? It may not been the best film but it changed the routine. Now, with all of the technology aspects including microblogging you can change the environment and engage students.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I am seeing papers that are not grammatically sound and wonder is social networking has something to do with this problem. We want student to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts, theories, and terms but yet answering the question is what they are most interested in doing. It is difficult to get students to understand that they need to write with some level of critical thinking not just simple provide a response. This may be the reason for the word requirement, so they answer all of the what, why, where, when, how questions.
