Twitter Makes Its Way Into Classroom

School and college teachers across the country have started to incorporate Twitter into classrooms for a past few years, but its adoption by most educational institutions is limited.

A survey conducted by the consulting firm, Pearson Learning Solutions, of 1,920 U.S. teachers published in April indicated that about 2% of them use Twitter in their college lectures. But about half of those survey participants said that the use of Twitter and Facebook in class is detrimental to the students' learning experience.

Enrique Legaspi, a History teacher at Hollenbeck Middle School in East Los Angeles, explained this plan to his students.  But he learned that only one of his students had used Twitter in the past.  But at the same time he said that most of his students practically live on their phones. So encouraging them to get started was not a difficult task. Students who did not have Internet-connected mobile phones or gadgets of their own were able to use the class computers.

Legaspi, who has been teaching for eight years, said that this experience has made him realize that a small group of students tend to encourage and dominate classroom discussions. Also, during the seminar at Macworld, other teachers expressed seeing broader student participation via Twitter.

Several students said that they liked the new approach.  Occasionally, a few students will type in something inappropriate during the class. But still, Legaspi is convinced that he has discovered the future of education.

--------

Share This:

Facebook

Twitter

Google Plus

Pinterest

Linkedin