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Be: Engaged
29
Read,
write
and
tweet
As social media begins to find its place inside Australian classrooms, students
will find participating in class the ‘cool’ thing to do, discovers Jacob Lowry.
PHOTO: PETER LAWRENCE
The way we connect
with each other is
rapidly changing.
Gone are the days
when we needed to meet up
in person or pick up the phone
on the wall to catch up. All
you need in 2012 is a pair of
opposable thumbs and you
can have a thriving social life.
Social media is the way of
the future, allowing millions
to connect with millions
more. It’s now the preferred
method of communication
for teenage socialites and is
rapidly encompassing other age
groups as well. But could it be
the future of education?
Research conducted by Dr
Michael Cowling and Jeremy
Novak from CQUniversity’s International Education Research
Centre has revealed a method of teaching and learning that could
make schoolwork more accessible and attractive than ever before.
Twitter, the social networking site home to Ashton Kutcher’s rants
and over 200 million ‘tweets’ per day, could revolutionise the way
class discussion is approached by both teachers and students.
The pair used Twitter as the main discussion medium over
a single semester in a Diploma-level management course on
CQUniversity’s metropolitan campuses. Instead of using the ‘raised
hand’ method, students would respond to questions on Twitter,
using cyber-threads to replace vocal debate. The researchers
discovered that the in-class participation rate was much higher
than using traditional discussion, and found the learning experience
was far more engaging and involved.
On the back of their successful study, Dr Cowling believes the
time is nigh for Twitter to become commonplace not only in the
lecture theatre, but in the high school classroom as well. He believes
that using social media could unlock the potential of thousands of
disengaged students.
“Our research is part of a
broader focus on technology in
education going forward,” he says.
“We know most students are active
on social media anyway, so by
giving them another use for it we
can hopefully encourage higher
participation rates in classes. Quite
often we see students who have
valuable input to a class discussion,
but are too shy to voice it. As the
old adage goes, if ‘one person
raises their hand, there are 10
more thinking the same thing’, so
hopefully by implementing Twitter
into these sorts of situations we’re
giving these students a voice.”
The work of Cowling
and Novak follows a recent
announcement by Apple in January
that they intend to release ‘digital
textbooks’ on iPads, allowing students to view animations, videos
and extra material that can enhance traditional text-based study
notes. “For teachers, the students sitting in front of them today
are different. They are digital natives, they’ve grown up using this
technology, they’re comfortable with it. This is the culture of the 21st
century student, so let’s use it to engage them.”
Initial indicators have the researchers optimistic about the
adoption of Twitter into pedagogy, yet how will the students fare
with having social media sanctioned during class time? The duo’s
theory brings into question the effect Twitter could have on the
educational institution as a whole. Are students likely to use it to
engage with teachers more? Or will it just be a better way to kill time
between lunch breaks?
Cowling concedes that teaching methods will need to be
drastically altered to make this a mainstream teaching method.
The aging demographic of high school and tertiary educators
and the possible distractions of the Twitter-sphere could make
the adoption of Twitter quite a challenge, but rewarding for both
teachers and students.
ISSUE 13