The idea of incorporating Twitter into the classroom is a growing idea among both students and teachers. While the popular social media site may seem like a place for people to tweet about random things, such as how their day is going or where they are going for lunch, Twitter also has the capability to benefit students outside of the classroom. Many k-12 teachers and college professors have begun to use Twitter to keep students engaged and stay up-to-date on what is going on with the school, as well as increase communication between both students and teachers. When used correctly, Mary Bart argues that Twitter has the ability to increase learning outside of the classroom.
In the article “Professors Use Twitter to Increase Student Engagement and Grades,” Mary Bart discusses how Professor Reynol Junco conducted a study with students in his first year seminar course to determine whether or not Twitter can provide academic benefits. Junco used 70 students in the experimental group and 50 students in the control group. The experiment took place
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Not only can students continue sharing ideas outside of the classroom, teachers are able to join in with conversations and possibly create stronger relationships with his or her students. Bart explains that when asked about the experiment, Junco reports that he was not only surprised by the differences in GPA’s, he was also surprised by the student involvement. According to Professor Junco, while students may not interact much in class, students often went above and beyond expectations in online discussions. Not only did conversations become more in-depth, shy students who often did not speak in class became much more involved via Twitter. Bart explains that many students do not feel comfortable speaking out loud in public, however, they feel much more comfortable sharing ideas
Should schools use social media to communicate? Most schools have a Facebook or Twitter account to communicate with parents and students. We know that social media is the quickest way to make information available to the public. Students don’t think they can survive without social media.
Twitter creates a positive impact through simple connection; this connection calls up raw emotion, enables people to keep in constant communication with friends and colleagues across the world, and constantly updates people with news from everywhere on the globe just as it is happening. “Twitter is my lifeline to the world.” Twitter enables Eltahawy to stay updated on news as it breaks, keeping her on top of every story and in constant communication by
In particular, Yardi claimed that using chatrooms “may be helpful for some students while others are better off not using it, depending on the personal experience of each individual student (322).” She does recognized that using backchannels in class can cause for distractions from the lesson to off-topic conversations due to “continuous partial attention.” In addition, another issue would be introverted students may not want to partake in the chatrooms. Nevertheless, these problems can be avoided by measures should be taken. Students that are not using the chatrooms appropriately should face penalties and to make timid students more comfortable with sharing their views, students should have
One of the advantages of twitter is a very simple and educational social network. This allows to be aware of everything that interests you, such as communities, celebrities, or just people who are not famous, but they write very interesting things. Although the twitter is a social network where you
Kathryn Schulz article, “Seduced by Twitter”, discusses her personal experience of subscribing to an online network. Schulz focuses on her actions and feelings upon using a social media site known as Twitter by introducing her bias, excessive use, and the impact Twitter left on her. First of all, Schulz explains how social media in general isn’t what she finds interesting. For example, Schulz makes the claim that the people she works for are encouraging her to join twitter, but by doing so makes her feel “un-me-ish” and “silly”. Next, Schulz decides to join Twitter and her activity on it begins to rise.
Social media has become a huge part of our lives and the younger generation is becoming more involved with this new technology. However, the use of social media has been a great debate in classroom settings. School districts have been conflicted with the two options: to teach along and incorporate social media into the classroom or to restrict the use of social media during school hours.
(procon.org. 1). Anyway, while we pond on that question, let us discuss why social media discourages students from studying or why students who uses social networking sites don’t do well in school. Besides the fact that students who use social networking sites use them to connect with their family, and long distance friends, proponents of social networking sites may argue that it helps students to do better at school, and that 59% of students with access to the internet report that they use social networking sites to discuss educational topics and 50% use these sites talk about school assignments, according to procon.org (2). However, since these sites are not one hundred percent accurate and reliable, how are we sure that the students who uses social networking sites are actually doing well in their academics and not failing when it is obvious non users of social networking sites perform better. As a matter of fact, what chance does a student who uses social networking sites stand to a student who spends their time outside classroom doing their homework’s, reading their class notes, textbooks, and novels, and spending their time on other things other than on social networking sites? In as much as many of us don’t see the harm social networking sites are having on our students, it is an undeniable fact
In our society, social networking has become very popular over the last 5 years. Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to become “followers” of other people and stay informed about current events and social trends. Many argue whether or not these social websites such as Twitter, are good for society. In two articles about Twitter, the authors present different arguments about why Twitter is good or bad for society. The author of “Heading off disaster, one Tweet at a time” by Jim Spellman, states that Twitter is a good way of communicating current events happening around the world. The other article, “Is Twitter Bad for National Security?” by Tony Bradley, argues that Twitter could have dangerous effects on our nation’s
Are we becoming less human with the passing of each day? Have we become too dependent on technology, specifically social media? In this day and age, people have different views on social media. They question its true purpose and its effect on society as a whole. With that said, although there are many thoughts concerning the topic/trend of social media something that is undoubtedly true is that social media plays an active role in the lives of the majority of people. Whether in a positive or negative way, social media influences the lives of all people. However this paper focuses on the effect of social media on college students. It addresses both the positive and negative effects of social media on those in college; focusing on a student’s academic efficiency, social interactive skills, and overall productivity.
U.S. teachers are engaging today's students in many ways to help them improve their education, social skill, and prepare them for society. One of the most popular methods that teacher use to engage students in teaching is the social network. Today, teachers use the social network to provide lessons in class and outside of class, with the idea of getting the students' attention when participation
However, advocates of classroom learning believe the online method isolates the students from one another as well as their professor minimizing the overall value of taking the course. They also claim that students learn better when working together with their instructor and their fellow classmates. Students learn better when they are given the opportunity to ask questions, join in class discussions, and they move the process of learning forward through their participation. Face-to-face advocates firmly believe that this kind of interaction is not possible over the Internet; and for many types of education, e-learning will never meet the potential of live human interaction in the classroom. An article in the New York Times titled, “Second Thoughts on Online Education,” backs up the points made above. A recent research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, comes to the conclusion; “A rush to online education
Jon Russell once said, “Social Media presents a huge opportunity for schools, universities and other educational organizations to reach out and connect with students and prospective students”. With no doubt, social media has influenced the way students are educated today. For those of you who do not know the exact definition of social media, the social media means ways of sharing information, opinions, images, videos using the Internet, especially social networking sites. Because of the Internet, people started finding ways to socialize through social websites and exchange information. Popular social network on the Internet such as YouTube became a sensation for me ever since I became a student in college. Today social media can be used for educational purposes. The ways social media is changing education has affected how the students express themselves, behave, and interact with each other.
Many students agree that social networking is an essential tool in education today. Feedback has become a vital tool amongst students and teachers in networking whether it’s Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter (Carey, n.d.). In a recent study, it stated that 59% of students who belong to “social networking sites” admitted that when there on the Internet they explore topics to communicate about such as college preparation and occupations. Another study shows that 50% of students use social networking to improve on their studies and teachers have found that this has helped students become more successful in their reading and writing vocabulary (“Social,”
In the realm of education, researchers and facilitators are interested in the effects of social media – especially Facebook – on university students. Previous studies have example the relationship between the use of Facebook and engagement levels of students related to academic outcomes, but were limited in their outcome by their evaluation of Facebook usage in how they measured engagement. One specific study (as follows) filled this
While it was not possible to determine if using the site and increased academic self-efficacy users were seen attending more orientation programs and users were seen to help each other adjust to campus life(DeAndrea 18-19). Teachers are seeing different benefits from using social media. One benefit is more engagement from students, a theater class at the University of North Carolina used a video game to enter a social universe set in Shakespeare’s Globe theater. The class would act out plays in the virtual setting, the professor noticed more engagement and excitement from the more quiet and shy students(Blankenship 40). Not all teachers, and students, are receptive or willing to integrate social media into the classroom. One argument against implementation is that not all students have the ability to access the Internet when not on school grounds and requiring the school to provide technology outside of the classroom would be impractical or impossible to achieve(Blankenship 41). Another argument that is used is that social media is its impersonal nature “the best ideas often come from sharing an actual space with someone” (Blankenship 41). Educators are still researching social media’s place in education and the classroom is one of the best places to experiment.