Twitter is a wonderful way to provide instant updates to assignments and activities alike. It also can be a fun tool for students to use to follow certain news headlines and even to research a topic for a paper. The list is endless.
Scott,
You could setup a facebook page that is not tied to your account. That would allow you to take advantage of the functions that social media provides.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
At the institution where I teach, we are discouraged from friending or accepting friend requests from students due to our anti-fraternization policy.
The school does have a twitter account and I tweet photos of my work and my students work to the school. Students are then able to see the tweets and re-tweet or resond to my tweet.
Aldgenette,
I think you are on the right track incorporating microblogging activities. Your plans for Twitter sound interesting and students read twitter.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
As an on ground instructor teaching all web-based courses, I have not yet used any of the micro blogging activities. However, this is tool that I will be investing and utilizing in the near future because I see that it would be a very helpful social media product to use in order to get more information, etc. I read where many of the instructors are using delicious and diigo--I think I'll start there. I will eventually set up a Twitter account and have students to follow me. This way, I can post assignments and information for student access. As of now, I am posting assignments via engrade.com; as well as other media that's already built into the course. I also see that Twitter is a great place for students and myself to gain information on various topics.
Jane,
Sounds like you have a strategy. I use IM to do that also as it goes to their phones and they always have that. Look at the app Remind101.com.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I love the idea of sending out tweets for announcements, changes, due dates, etc.
I know there are many students who never read my announcements in the classroom. For one thing, the announcements have become longer over the years as more information needs to be included for student understanding. It used to be I could direct students to a more detailed page of information, but they would not navigate to it, so I moved the information to the announcement page, it would be terrific to have the announcement go out as a tweet to tell students to find more info at #assignment1, etc.
Since I also post weblinks in my announcements, this would give another opportunity to send those links directly to students.
Stephanie,
You also may want to use padlet.com. It is like a Pinterest public board. That might be a nice complement to the blog. You have a great start for a plan.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I agree with Dennis and Patrice. Micro-blogging could be utilized to forward links of current events that are related to the topics being covered that week. I think this would be something that would be of interest to the students and would expand upon their learning of the topics.
Utilizing it as assignment reminders as the material stated would also be good. However, some students (the responsible ones) may get annoyed with this.
One last way I think it could be helpful, is in reminding students to communicate and work with their groups for group projects. It is another way to reach out to them. There are always some students each class that basically choose to not participate with their group until the day before the assignment is due, regardless of my recommendations to communicate as soon as possible. I do this through live chats, emails, and posted announcements in the classroom. But another method to be able to reach out to them could help.
Nathan,
I like your strategy. You might like to padlet.com. It is a "wall" that students could share their findings from the Internet.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I teach design so I would be sharing a wide range of links and resources around the subject matter we are discussing/working on. I would ask my students to share inspiration and additional resources with each other on a regular basis. I would also challenge them to use the platform for networking since it is a great way to make contact with people all over the globe.
Phyllis,
That is such a great activity. You could also have them identify other characters with similar characteristics.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Richard,
I have used it. How do you incorporate in your class?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jaclyn,
Again you are sharing great resources that I am making a list. I am going to use this in my next course. How do you use this in your courses?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jaclyn,
You are ahead of the curve. How do your students react to this?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I think a good microblogging activity for a literature course would be to ask students to select their favorite character and comment on why the character is important to the story. I think this would create interest for students to conduct a second reading for certain passages. It would also foster critical thinking as students have to limit their responses in terms of brevity. This activity would help student focus more on understanding the specifics of the character. What other suggestions for literature could you think of for a “Topics in Literature†course that covers a variety of diverse authors?
I agree, I've had success in organizing interactions and getting to content with Delicious.
I prefer Diigo as a social bookmarking site - it has a free education edition - https://www.diigo.com/education
I actually do use microblogging - Twitter in one of my courses. For one assignment, students are to locate references related to communities of practice and connectivism, and then Tweet out links to the references using the course hashtag #EdTechSN so other students in the course can easily access those resources.
Lakithia,
I think that is a great idea. They can explore the professional use of facebook.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
