Tweeting Your Way to Improved #Writing, #Reflection, and #Community

Alice Louise Kassens Roanoke College

kassens@roanoke.edu

NETA Fall 2013 Austin, TX

Can we harness social media to work with us in the classroom?

Social media is here It is very popular Economists are not great at

embracing technology in the classroom

Students enjoy it If you cant beat it

What is Twitter?
O Online microblogging
O Accessed through

technology
O Post tweets up to

140 characters
O ~200 million active

variety of portals: cellphone, computer, tablet

O Tweets can include

users, ~400 million tweets/day

O Free service,

pictures and videos

O Users twitter page

www.twitter.com

can be customized using templates

@kassensecon122

Twitter in the classroom

O Twitter has been

shown to improve:
O Engagement O Participation O Writing O Community O Learning O Memory

Twitter and writing/reflection

O 140 character limit

forces succinctness
O electronic editor

#writi ng

O Brevity of tweets =

powerful tool for teaching writing & other communication skills

Twitter and writing/reflection

O Writing about

economics=vital test of understanding

O Challenge in 100-

#reflecti on

level courses
O A key to good

writing=developin g an argument

What we did
O Social media project
O ~25 student avg. O 15% of course grade O Computer lab O Screen projecting Twitter

O Ten graded tweets

O Rubric developed

with class
O Assignments both

feed
O Unique hashtag

in and out of class period

O Review tweets in

(#kassensecon122)

class

Preparation (in class)

O Brief introduction to Twitter (many

students had never used Twitter)

O Set up accounts O 10-15 minutes to personalize page,

follow, tweet
O Develop rubric: What makes a good

tweet?

Faculty should already be familiar with Twitter

Preparation (in class)

Twitter grading rubric

Sample assignment
O State of the Union

Address 2013
1. Watch address w/in

O Purpose
O Increase student

24 hours of event
2. Tweet several

awareness of current issues

O Apply course

comments or questions
3. One tweet graded

material to these issues

O Communicate in

thoughtful/concise manner

Sample assignment

Sample assignment

Unintended consequence
O Twitter expands the

classroom beyond the physical walls

O Global conversations O guest speakers

#commun ity

O Community can be

developed in typically isolated experiences

Suggestions
O Hold class in lab O Establish ground rules O Allow practice tweets O Select unique # O Grade tweets via

Benefits
O Expand classroom, become

part of a larger community

O Refine reflection & writing

skills w/o a large written assignment

O Increase engagement O Demonstrate responsible use

student page
O Follow your students O Assign a significant

of social media

weight to assignment

Difficulties
O Challenging with

Cautions
O Professor should

large classes
O Currently are not

be comfortable with the technology

O Pick a unique

reliable applications to collect tweets for a record

hashtag for all assignments

O Keep tweets to

course material

Thank you!

Follow me @RnningEconomist Follow my class @kassensecon122 Read my paper

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2331004

Email me: kassens@roanoke.edu

a K e c i l A

s n sse