{"id":26988,"date":"2015-03-09T16:21:41","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T20:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/?p=26988"},"modified":"2019-02-26T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T19:58:11","slug":"bringing-social-media-into-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/2015\/03\/09\/bringing-social-media-into-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Social Media into the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One<\/a>
One of the many photos posted by students in Professor Hammer’s lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’ll admit that we’re ready for the nice spring weather. But, we haven’t only been experiencing snow flurries at CGS this winter. Over the past few months, there’s been a regular flurry of tweets\u00a0mentioning @BUCGS<\/a>\u00a0with photos of our students having fun\u00a0while doing their\u00a0science lab work.\u00a0It was also a fun surprise to\u00a0see students tweeting about urban ecology\u00a0during\u00a0one of the\u00a0snow days this past semester. So,\u00a0we sat down with the faculty member behind it all, CGS Natural Sciences and Mathematics Professor Sam Hammer\u00a0(@SamHammer<\/a>), to learn more\u00a0about how he’s using social media\u00a0in the classroom.<\/p>\n

CGS: First, tell us what inspired the idea to use social media during class. We\u2019ll admit, using social media in a natural sciences course takes some creativity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SH:\u00a0Sometimes students are shy about communicating in class, especially in science classes. I wanted to\u00a0expand the\u00a0ways in which\u00a0to connect with students– more conversation, more feedback, more flow of ideas– so I thought I would try Twitter. Since a lot of students seem to “live” on their devices this seemed like a good “natural habitat” where we could engage.<\/p>\n

CGS:\u00a0How are you using Twitter to connect with students?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

SH: Sometimes, I ask students to tweet me\u00a0a response to a question I pose during lecture. After class, I respond to their tweets, which often leads to substantive conversations and lots of exploration of ideas. During labs, which I designed to encourage as much student engagement as possible, people tweet me with their progress on their work. Often, this includes photoraphs, which makes it both a visual and verbal\u00a0environment. I can tweet right back with a positive comment! I also use Twitter to comment on the awesome in-class energy.\u00a0Students see those tweets and\u00a0retweet them, which builds a really positive culture.<\/p>\n

CGS: What social media channels have you been using? Why have you chosen these channels?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SH:\u00a0I primarily\u00a0use Twitter, but I\u00a0also\u00a0use Storify, Flickr, and blogs. Storify is a great way to summarize the activities surrounding a class or lab. I don\u2019t collect all student tweets there, instead I\u00a0choose a few to highlight what we did and tell a story about it. I work out a lot of ideas for my labs in\u00a0one of my blogs<\/a>, where I explore teaching and learning. I also ask students to read some of these posts and respond to me, you can\u00a0see their detailed comments under some of the posts.<\/p>\n

I use the latter two to encourage more detailed written responses from students, because Twitter obviously has the character limit.<\/p>\n

CGS: How have students taken onto it? Do you think it\u2019s enhanced their learning experience? Does it ever detract from the classroom experience (i.e., students using social when it\u2019s not part of the lesson)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I asked my students to quantitatively address a series of questions about my primary teaching goal, which is engagement in class. From their responses it looks like their engagement is very high (I can share the statistics with you if you’re interested). Our use of social media seems to enhance that engagement.<\/p>\n

As for distractions, I have to say that I trust my students as adults and I trust their learning process. They are well able to monitor their own work and stay on track. There are professors who will not allow devices, including laptops into their classrooms. I would rather not restrict the learning environment. Distractions are a part of life. I think we need to encourage responsibility and trust that our students will act accordingly.<\/p>\n

CGS: We saw you tweeting with students on\u00a0a recent\u00a0snow day. Tell us more!<\/strong><\/p>\n

SH: We are studying urban ecology this semester; a huge, complex topic that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Given the snow day and classes being\u00a0cancelled, we were missing a lecture on substantive, foundational material.\u00a0So, as a Plan B,\u00a0I sent a note out to my students early that morning, asking them to read and tweet me on one of several readings in our Blackboard site. Rather than being “sage on stage,” Twitter gave me the chance to\u00a0get some great conversations going with students, and for others to track the conversation and learn from their classmates.\u00a0It wasn’t how I initially intended to deliver\u00a0some of the important concepts, but\u00a0it worked pretty well and\u00a0we merrily tweeted our way through the drifting snow!<\/p>\n

CGS: Any advice on how can other teachers begin to think about integrating social media into their course?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SH: It’s up to the personal style of every professor. Some people don’t feel comfortable with social media and I\u00a0respect that. It’s only a tool\u2014not an end in itself.\u00a0 It\u2019s really that whether you use technology or not, so much of teaching has to do with gauging where students are in their learning\u2014observing your students closely, picking up on their energy levels, etc.<\/p>\n

In order to get the best response rates,\u00a0I am extremely intentional in the planning process: I outline\u00a0what I want to get out of each tweet, and what I want to put into it.\u00a0I also use it in moderation.\u00a0Asking students to tweet me during every lecture\u00a0might risk loosing\u00a0the novelty of including social media as part of the course.\u00a0I also try to respond\u00a0to every student who tweets me, not during lecture, but during down time at home. This is a great way to start conversations and get to know students and their ideas better, but it also calls for a time commitment on my part.<\/p>\n

There are so many ways to use social media. Here are some starting questions I would\u00a0pose to a colleague interested in bringing social media into the classroom:<\/p>\n