As a teaching tool, PowerPoint can be awful. Is Twitter any better? One promotes passivity; the other, connectedness and interactivity (unless you follow people like us, who are about as responsive as a dining room table). The Chronicle of Higher Education raises an interesting question: should professors be tweeting with their students? Or is it a poor substitute for face-to-face interaction? Of course, some say brevity is the soul of wit, and 140 characters is very, very brief. [%comments]
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Could be that methods of communication that require less cognitive effort gain popularity quicker?
Look at teens who prefer texting to talking. When you have a conversation, your brain has to process body language, tone, etc. and when reading a text message you just process the message.
Maybe people seek out more passive means of communication because they do not like to think or aren’t used to it.
“Or is it a poor substitute for face-to-face interaction? ”
Bad question. Why would it be an either/or situation? Why couldn’t Twitter be used along with face-to-face interactions or for other purposes such as announcements? Except for the length of the message would it be any different than email?
I don’t understand why when something “new” comes along some people assume the only way it can be used is to replace something else.
Of course Twitter is a poor substitute for face-to-face interactions, but I doubt anyone would suggest supplanting such face-to-face interactions with Twitter. Rather the question is, “Does Twitter have a use in a classroom or in public discourse on a topic?”
I think Twitter is excellent for briefly answering a question of general interest within the context of a course. (E.g. Yes, @student the final exam _is_ in Room 101 #coursenumber) Or in developing a network of students (and non-students) interested in the subject matter beyond the course materials.
This is a ridiculous false dichotomy! Why can’t professors have face-to-face meetings AND internet communications? I’ve never had a prof on twitter, but I’ve had a few who did a late-night chat room on the night before exams or major assignments to help out students who had last-minute questions, at a time when people wouldn’t be on campus. A great addition, and a situation where minus the internet, the interaction just wouldn’t be able to happen at all.
What if a student is opposed to the terms of service required to sign up for Twitter, or Facebook?
What if an instructor used their own website to disseminate information, and required registration and accepting terms of service made up by the instructor?
What if the site carried ads?
How many of us have actually read those privacy agreements?
Twitter/Facebook are extremely poor substitutes for face-to-face interaction. Period.
If only students in classes where I was the T.A. actually took more time wrestling with the material instead of disseminating that they hate the class…
I’ve not seen many professors (at my university) use Twitter as a substitute for the phone. Many even say “come in to talk to me” if a student emails or phones them.
I’ve seen Twitter used more so to suppliment emails. For things such as “emails the entire class” messages such as “Chapter 7 will not be on the test as I didn’t get to it in class” or “Class is canceled as my (pretend excuse)”. More students get Twitter messages sent to their cell phones than their emails.
As a grad student in an online course starting this summer I never knew professors to “phone it in” so much.
Just as some students might abuse the chance to take a course online and do everything last minute or skip readings, one professor has gone so far as to neglect to grade assignments for the better part of two weeks, fail to give feedback and use twice weekly emails not to make up for this lack of communication, but to make excuses for herself. Not to mention, she is a very mercutial grader in these invisibility cycles!
If a student would pull this act they would surely fail.
Maybe making a prof like this stay in regular contact might either cause her to change her ways or give up taking an online course-load she obviously can’t or doesn’t want to handle.