We of the age-group now going to college have been dubbed by onlookers “Generation Y.” We experience an unparalleled degree of global communication. The Internet has entered almost every community of the world and can feature input from anyone who can use a mouse and keyboard. One of the newest breakthroughs in communications is called Web 2.0, a blanket term for the web applications that let users instantly print to the internet. Twitter, one of the forerunners the Web 2.0 services, combines text-messaging with blogging to allow users to spontaneously give concise bursts of information to readers. Students and professors the world over are beginning to explore the possibilities of Twitter, asking the question, what effect can this revolutionary mode of communication have on student success?
The reason that Twitter has come into the global limelight, frequently being compared to the advent of the printing press, is for the associations it allows. It combines the quick and convenient expression of text messaging with the longevity and visibility of blogging, both of which are mediums that have rocked the communication world. What this means for students is that we are suddenly capable of taking flight over classroom limitations once thought as inescapable as gravity. Questions that are stifled by classes having more students than hours can now be addressed after the ring of the bell. A student need not fail a test because he couldn’t make it to a study session; he can read notes and even contribute questions in real time. And let’s not forget the too-common pain of running into a new homework problem just hours before the assignment is due; this can be treated as like-minded students use Twitter to share their studies.
Some people argue that great minds have been cultivated without the help of this new technology for millenia. These are the same arguments that would have shut down Gutenberg before his printing press ended 1000 years of dark ages. As did the printing press, which drew condemnation from many of the powers-that-were, Twitter might be targeted by skeptics doubting its yet little-explored capacity to help students succeed. Amidst these arguments Twitter gains unique credibility from the fact that it is being explored from within the ranks of those we might expect to be the most skeptical: educators themselves. Teacher David Parry applauded the use of Twitter for allowing even the timid voices to be heard from the back of over-full and time-constrained classes (Young, 2008). Gee Ekechai, of Marquette University, finds Twitter a powerful tool in strengthening class discussions, and Linda Menck finds it both appropriate and useful for teaching her marketing classes (Perez, 2009). These and other educators the world over (see, for example, Huang, Wang & Wang, 2008) are demonstrating belief that Twitter and its associate Web 2.0 applications can powerfully improve the mode of education.
The potential of Twitter to benefit our grades and, more importantly, our learning, is by no means contingent on teacher implementation. In reality our failure to personally explore the tools now at our fingertips might be one of the most grievous mistakes we can make as we continue our education. Three separate studies on blogging demonstrate the kind of misunderstanding that prevents students from making full use of Twitter. Rather than sharing insights and active thinking, the students posted only enough enough to hit the requirements (Homik & Melis, 2006), contributed haphazardly and minimally (Krause 2004), or simply failed to comply with the posting expectations of the course (Williams & Jacobs, 2004). Students aren’t making the short and simple connection that Twitter can be one of the best learning instruments since the notepad.
Huijser has pointed out that “Web 2.0 technologies both reflect and drive a blurring of the lines between students and university educators” (2008); Twitter and its family of applications are making learning increasingly peer-to-peer in nature. Students begin to play major roles in one another’s learning experience. Meanwhile teachers, rather than diminishing in influence, are gaining the ability to build a kind of scholarly relationship with students that they have never before enjoyed. This results because tools like Twitter form the wings for education to expand beyond the temporal cage in which it has always been bound.
Twitter cannot and should not replace the physical classroom; instead, it serves to extend classes into new dimensions. Face-to-face relationships remain the most important mode of communication, but where personal meetings are not possible Twitter can carry student voices when and where they would otherwise be unheard and unknown. Meanwhile, during those hours that fall between the gaps of in-class learning, Twitter provides a virtual classroom to help learning continue.
For some students, the dramatic metamorphosis to this new shape of education is uncomfortably radical. They are concerned at Thompson’s observation that Web 2.0 has the “potential to change the model of higher education from the traditional classroom framework to an asynchronous 24/7 mode, [which could] mean engaging students in extended collaborative learning opportunities (2007, para. 17).” If you are afraid of making learning a continual thing, or if the thought of ready and facilitated collaboration is frightening to you, or if you’ve made a habit of disconnecting yourself from class or instructor, by all means avoid Twitter. But if you, like me, have come to love learning and have chosen to face education at its most challenging, don’t commit an oversight you will come to regret. Don’t confuse a revolutionary tool for a mean pass-time or busy-work. Face the truth of Twitter: whether or not you keep up, it is bringing a change to the landscape of education.
References
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Huijser, H (2008).Exploring the educational potential of social networking sites: the fine line between exploiting opportunities and unwelcome imposition. Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and/ Development/. 5(3), 45-54.
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Perez, E, (2009, 04 29). Journal Sentinel Online. Retrieved June 11, 2009, from Professors experiment with Twitter as teaching tool Web site: https://www.jsonline.com/news/education/43747152.html
Thompson, J. (2007). Is education 1.0 ready for Web 2.0 students? Innovate, /3/(4). Retrieved May 10, 2009, from https://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=393
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Williams J. & Jacobs J. (2004) Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 20, 232–247
Young, J. R. (2008, January 28). Wired campus: a professor’s tips for using twitter in the classroom. Retrieved May 11, 2009, from The Chronicle of Higher Education Web site: https://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2699/a-professors-tips-for-using-twitter-in-the-classroom