Went back into the class that i helped set up twitter with over a month ago to see how they were getting on and was pleased to see that a lot of the students in the class seem to have got the hang of it. Their IT teacher Nicci, tutor Florence and co-tutor Sam have all got on board and are making regular updates.
Florence uses twitter to make class announcements which seems to be working particularly well and little by little, students are making *tweets* outside their normal class times. One learner today informed Nicci that she would be late thro Twitter!
Again the drawbacks seem to be Literacy 2.0 issues with passwords etc which can frustrate both the learner and the teacher!
Example of teacher – student dialogue on twitter
It’s taken a while but the students have got to grip with Twitter pretty well really. Some students are really very good and have regularly either messaged me directly or posted to the group.
If they remembered to check regularly I think it would work really well as it’s an easy form of communication.
The main problem seems to be not remembering their username or password!
By: Nicci on March 17, 2008
at 5:03 pm
Students find Twitter a lot more easy to navigate/use than their college email account. Some have sent me direct emails to tell me about absence or ask a question. All seem to have found it a fun exercise!
Those who send emails usually have access to a computer at home or work.
The next step is really to get them to pop into the library for 5 mins to check their account and post sth. But this is not that spontaneous and I think explains why these students — who don’t often have typed assignments to hand in and often don’t have a computer at home, and therefore only really sit in front of a computer once a week in their IT lesson — haven’t really posted on Twitter.
Thinking as I’m writing – it would be good to use their production in class to do some correction work – either on pronunciation / spelling or both? It might encourage them to send more ‘tweets’ if they get more feedback?
By: Florence on March 17, 2008
at 6:08 pm
I like the idea of using twitter to make class announcements- I’ve suggested this idea in other contexts.
The problem with accounts is very valid – it’s a problem the Internet has at the moment and many suffer the frustration.
Hopefully OpenID wil sort this out – not sure on the timeframe though
By: martinking on March 19, 2008
at 10:49 am
also – wait until more students have interbnat capable mobile phones – twitter is really easy and convenient on a handheld unit
By: martinking on March 25, 2008
at 7:28 pm