Integrating Social Media With Online Courses
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Subject: [PD 4819] media support
From: LHarlow
Date: Wed Jul 14 10:17:27 EDT 2010
Hi,
I have taken several online graduate courses from my local university.
The school uses the Blackboard Suite, which I think is phenomenal
especially the latest version recently installed.
There are always two problems that occur with the online class, at least
my perception. One is yes, everyone comes to the class with different
skills. Two, the teachers are not as current as I would hope for on the
benefits embedded within the Blackboard.
We have had a variety of learning styles evident in the classes, yet the
many online options available to augment their learning strengths are
not being utilized. This is frustrating as a student because some of us
discussed how it could have enhanced and helped us.
I do not think that the blackboard offers an ability to connect
something like twitter. Does it? That would be a great enhancement.
Sometimes as students we really only want to share a few sentences or
direct someone to a source, it would be something if we could do that
through twitter to the blackboard for the class.
Laura
Laura Harlow
Virginia Commonwealth U.
Richmond, VA
Subject: [PD 4830] Re: media support
From: Jackie A. Taylor
Date: Wed Jul 14 14:31:18 EDT 2010
Hi Laura, All,
Laura, thanks for sharing. The problems you've described at your university
may be similar to what's happening in adult ed.
Re: Twitter
I think it's feasible for the instructor to use Twitter in conjunction with
an online course. The teacher would have or open a Twitter account. This
might be in her name or a pen name as Nell and I did in opening an account
for this guest discussion (see www.twitter.com/TechPD). The instructor
would designate time (as Nell described in her posting today on Wiggio) to
show the students the Twitter account and help them create their own if they
wish. That way those who need support will have it. If they do not meet F2F,
then perhaps clear instructions on how to do this could become part of the
online course. The instructor would then 'follow' the students and the
students would follow back and follow each other. Then the network is
established for communicating via Twitter.
I can't speak to the technical aspects of interfacing Twitter with
Blackboard Suite, but the instructor could post the URL to Twitter within
the course. However, Twitter offers ways to embed twitter feeds into web
pages, blogs, etc., so that the live stream of tweets (tweets made by one
person or on a particular subject) would appear in a box on the blog or web
page. Here are examples from Ed Week:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/feeds/widgets.html
Here's info on how to add a Twitter widget to a web page, FaceBook, MySpace:
http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/15354
How do others use Twitter as an instructional or staff development tool?
What are the possibilities?
Jackie Taylor
