<\/p>\n
I have started the new year with my visit to Vives in Belgium, ampoule<\/a> delivering again the New Media course to a new group of Erasmus exchange students. Using the feedback from every group, ampoule<\/a> the course has become over time\u00c2\u00a0more focused on social media marketing and communications. This also includes more extensive discussions about privacy and big data as well as their implications for users and organisations.<\/p>\n This year students have been also asking questions about Twitter and its usefulness as a network, price<\/a> a question that emerges by the end of the first day of teaching every semester and that comes especially from those accustomed to using Facebook and to thinking that a social networking platform is enough.<\/p>\n I have been teaching about Twitter and with Twitter since the first delivery of the New Media course at Katho (now Vives) in 2008. At the time is was mostly about showcasing how the platform works and using #kathonewmedia<\/a> to showcase the uses of hashtags\u00c2\u00a0by sharing course relevant materials. As questions about Twitter’s privacy policy would emerge, I would then ask students to read it and report to the class. A critical discussion focused on the implications of sharing data and on the definitions and boundaries of privacy would then follow.<\/p>\n I have continued to teach with Twitter at Bournemouth University where the Digital Communication Strategies<\/a> course had, among others, its own Twitter account to share class relevant materials and links but also answer immediate questions such as where the lecture was held or where particular pieces of information could be accessed. I have then suggested to students to use the course #DCSBU<\/a> associated hashtag to share with everyone more news, thoughts, comments and materials related to the class. I also used to monitor the class account and hashtag on my mobile phone while lecturing keeping up with what was going on in the full lecture hall (I taught around 230 students). This helped to reach out to those who didn’t want to voice their questions but also keep the students engaged all on their devices.\u00c2\u00a0Pele (2012)\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>for instance also used\u00c2\u00a0class hashtags to promote debate among his politics, law and journalism students. While\u00c2\u00a0something certainly “not for the faint of heart” as Young (2010)<\/a>, teaching with Twitter\u00c2\u00a0can enhance the classroom experience by providing students with a different form of interactivity. However,\u00c2\u00a0beyond the technical knowledge teaching with any kind of social media requires the lecturer to operate assuming a degree of risk – that of the class getting disorderly online or even highjacking the class hashtag for other topics. Kassens-Noor (2012)<\/a> supports some of these findings.<\/p>\n While in previous years I would just tell students to tweet, this year I have taken this further. For an hour, we have shifted the learning from the traditional\u00c2\u00a0concept presentation and application to problem-based learning. The aim of the exercise was to get students accustomed to the platform by using it highlighting indirectly the value of communicating with purpose. The discussion that I expected to emerge from the exercise was a multi-faceted one: recognising how intuitive the use of Twitter was while also acknowledging the speed with which data was shared and updated. Questions about the use of the data shared (by whom, what for, with what effect), its relevance to others, \u00c2\u00a0and its implications both for the users and their intended audiences were also expected.<\/p>\n Using the information that student have provided me with during our introductions about their field of study and interests, I have given each a different task – an article to read, a concept to clarify, some statistics to find and report on – all of them having to share their findings with the class hashtag.\u00c2\u00a0The time flew by and the students found themselves\u00c2\u00a0immersed in the exercise and the highly-personalised experience of their learning.<\/p>\n By undertaking the exercise we have:<\/p>\n Providing a personalised learning experience and direct and immediate reaction is not easy, requiring multitasking, a quick response and a method of monitoring class chatter. Although received with skepticism and perhaps apprehension by the students at the beginning I believe the exercise met its pedagogic objectives.\u00c2\u00a0However, the exercise has achieved more than that. Through its disruptive approach, it has brought fun and novelty into the classroom providing us with an experience that both the students enjoyed and I want to replicate in future deliveries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have started the new year with my visit to Vives in Belgium, ampoule delivering again the New Media course to a new group of Erasmus exchange students. Using the feedback from every group, ampoule the course has become over time\u00c2\u00a0more focused on social media marketing and communications. This also includes more extensive discussions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6,7,11,12],"tags":[544],"class_list":["post-1284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smcedu","category-new-media","category-news","category-teaching","category-tools","tag-teaching-with-twitter-vivesnewmedia-new-media-social-media-pedagogy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n