This past week my university shut down for 2 days due to inclement weather. My strategic social media professor suggested that we conduct a virtual class of live tweeting to supplement a suggestive Saturday make-up class. There are about 30 students in my class, and about 18 contributed along with other professors or anyone interested in our discussion who followed "#Manship4002."
Professor Brown started the virtual class via twitter by posting her lecture and began asking discussion questions. Students and contributors were then able to tweet responses, comments, questions and quotes. I found that this allowed students to be more interactive with one another as well as with the professor than normally in a classroom. I believe that because students were using a comfortable medium, they were more likely to participate in discussion. I would advocate to have virtual class bi-montly because of the great results we were able to develop using such. This was also ample practice for students who aren't involved in activities that would engage in live tweeting. We have briefly touched on storify, but I took the liberty of creating one for our class discussion last Friday.
View the story "Strategic Socme Class Twitterchat: 1/29/14" on Storify
The fast-paced engagement allowed for an entertaining hour where students discussed readings and the professor's discussion. If anything for future virtual twitter chats, I would like to see more developed conversations on the topic. It felt rushed and crammed within an hour, especially with the potential of extra points hanging over our heads. Perhaps to see a more relaxed environment it would be interesting to participate in a virtual twitter chat where the readings were already distributed and students participated more on choice. I would also love for the opportunity to host a twitter chat. Can a twitter chat take place during a conference, or would that just be a developed discussion via a centralized topic?
Professor Brown started the virtual class via twitter by posting her lecture and began asking discussion questions. Students and contributors were then able to tweet responses, comments, questions and quotes. I found that this allowed students to be more interactive with one another as well as with the professor than normally in a classroom. I believe that because students were using a comfortable medium, they were more likely to participate in discussion. I would advocate to have virtual class bi-montly because of the great results we were able to develop using such. This was also ample practice for students who aren't involved in activities that would engage in live tweeting. We have briefly touched on storify, but I took the liberty of creating one for our class discussion last Friday.
View the story "Strategic Socme Class Twitterchat: 1/29/14" on Storify
The fast-paced engagement allowed for an entertaining hour where students discussed readings and the professor's discussion. If anything for future virtual twitter chats, I would like to see more developed conversations on the topic. It felt rushed and crammed within an hour, especially with the potential of extra points hanging over our heads. Perhaps to see a more relaxed environment it would be interesting to participate in a virtual twitter chat where the readings were already distributed and students participated more on choice. I would also love for the opportunity to host a twitter chat. Can a twitter chat take place during a conference, or would that just be a developed discussion via a centralized topic?