Microblogging is an excellent way to facilitate connections between students and experts in the field because the use of real world experience practiced may be related to unit concepts to further student overall learning experience.
I currently utilize Twitter.com to expose students to experts in the marketing field whom work for companies through out the world. This provides global expertise in the marketing field for students, providing overall greater knowledge.
Ed,
This is one of the great ways to connect students with experts. It is one of the best things about the tool!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
It's possible to get an expert in the field to participate in a blogging project. That will allow students to learn the specifics of the subject matter.
Sodang,
I love this idea. I think it can be so powerful. There are other social networking sites that provide interesting connections that tend to be more professional such as Digg.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Eileen,
Yes that is true. You can also bring experts in to participate in those bloggings if you choose to.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Eileen,
I agree with you. Traditional students will connect with you using this medium. That is how they connect to their friends.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Have each student follow the tweets of the leader in their respective filed. Such as leading business man, experts, or someone who is highly respectable in that field. This will allow student to see the daily life of their field-leaders such as activities, ideology, thoughts, and routines.
With both students and experts having the same access to a microblog, then the two parties can openly and directly communicate about the relevant topic at hand. Without microblogging, the students may now have had the access to particular subject matter experts in the relevant course topic.
- Dr. Eileen Wibbeke
Kelly,
I see microblogging as a condensed form of student interaction with the instructor, and instructor feedback to the student. It is sort of like their own private area of the classroom where they can "dig deeper" into certain course topics.
- Dr. Eileen Wibbeke
Austin,
I like this idea. You will have to make sure that you have a way to assess it!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I would encourage the students to identify and follow any successful person in the industry whom they admire his/her work. However, I cannot guarantee the content and what interests the blogger may be pursuing in the tweets.
cynthia,
I love the term book report. Again the skill of self criticism is such an important one.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The use of microblogging could be similar to a ‘book report’ in that the student could use the timeframe to monitor experts in their field of interests and simply report / discuss current events. Similar to a ‘whats So-So doing ___ (current date)’ and continue on a daily/weekly basis. This could be similar to ‘story telling’ outcomes where many learn from this one work effort.
Harry,
Yes, they can, and they can see how important communication is (words and format) is in their field.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
By having student able to contact non-instructor experts, they can reinforce their learning experience through third party contributions.
Richard,
I think that is such a smart idea to have students "follow" a leader through social media. It will teach them the language of success! Great idea.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Rebecca,
I like your enthusiasm! The more time ( even short time) they can be in the content more and more and that is a good thing! I want them thinking about how they can apply and how they can engage in the content all the time. I know this is a dream.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Greetings,
Personally, I have had students follow industry and recognized leaders so that the class can discuss current events and trends. Additionally, I have been able to get students to connect with my networking contacts to ask questions as well.
Best wishes,
Rick
I think this would be most readily applicable to the education courses I teach. There are most likely several education experts who use Twitter, and connecting students with them would be a bonus to their development as educators. I have not used Twitter before. I have so much going on that it seems like it is just one more thing to keep up with. However, after reviewing this section, I can see potential benefits. I will certainly play around with Twitter to see how I can use it to connect my students with experts in the field.
Valerie,
You may want to try Google Hangout. It seems to be pretty robust.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
