Presentation given at the JISC Winter Fayre on 25th February 2011 in Edinburgh. This presentation looks at some of the ways Twitter can be used to support different aspects of teaching and learning

1. Festive Tweets
Martin Hawksey or @mhawksey
e-Learning Advisor (Higher Education)
http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3 RSCs – Stimulating and supporting innovation in learning

2. Thinks you need to know
 Hashtag for the session ‘#jiscwf #s3’
 Tweeting links/resources as I go (bundled at
http://bit.ly/jiscwf-s3 you can follow via
http://bit.ly/festivetweets )
 Slides available from http://slidesha.re/eqTtn6
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

3. Dialogic
In-class Backchannel Outside of Class Discussions In-class Directed Discussion
Uses: ad hoc class discussion, Uses: extend class Uses: Open or guided
real-time commenting, discussions, exchange questions with student
recording divergent comments about readings or responses collected for later
viewpoints questions about assignments analysis
Benefits: engages less vocal Benefits: community Benefits: engages all
students, archives otherwise building, continuity between students in discussions in
ephemeral comments class sessions large lecture classes
Tracking Activities Lightly Structured Activities Metacognitive/Reflective
Activities
Uses: find and follow Uses: solicit course Uses: students report on self
instructor experts in the feedback, offer ambient learning, articulate their
field, or key topics office hours, poll difficulties, recap the most
class, language or writing valuable lesson of the day
Benefits: exposure to the practice
lager cultural conversation Benefits: fosters critical
about the class material Benefits: thinking
flexibility, availability, scalabil
ity
Institutional communication Instructor Communication Pedagogical Communication
Monologic Uses: community outreach, Uses: announcements, Uses: sharing timely links
alerts, announcements syllabus changes, reminders and resources
Passive Student Activity Active
Mark Sample’s Twitter Adoption Matrix
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

4. Pedagogical Communication:
Autotweet
 SAP WEB 2.0 FREE
PowerPoint Twitter Tools
http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/
powerpoint-twitter-tools/
 (other tools including: feedback,
voting and more)
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

5. Instructor Communication:
Dlvr.it
 Using http://dlvr.it/ to
turn RSS feeds into
tweets
 Alternatively
http://twitterfeed.com/
there are others
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

6. Instructor Communication:
SMS
 Free SMS updates (saves
4p/msg from institutional
systems)
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

7. In or out of class directed discussions:
Electronic voting (EVS)
 Question: Are you watching this presentation
remotely via Livestream?
 For yes tweet ‘#jiscwfq1 yes’
 No tweet ‘#jiscwfq1 no’
 Option to provide context if you like with message + hashtag +
response e.g. ‘I got the train down from Inverness #jiscwfq1 yes’
 Result
http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/mashe/twevs/tw-evs.php
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

8. In or out of class directed discussions:
Electronic voting (EVS)
 If you don’t have handsets can vote via mobile
 Possibility to get more information (context for
answer)
 Voting not just restricted to in-class
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

9. In-class Backchannel:
Lecture capture enhancement
 iTitle – playing back video of live events with what
was said in the twitter backchannel
http://www.rsc-ne-
scotland.org.uk/mashe/ititle/estict.html
 More information http://www.rsc-ne-
scotland.org.uk/mashe/category/tt-tweets/
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

10. Lightly Structured Activities:
inboxq.com
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

11. Why
Mobility – crossing the dived between in and out of
class
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

12. Why
Flexibility – not hard to add functionality and
interface with Twitter service
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

13. Why
Learner communities – opportunity to share learning
within cohort and further afield
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

14. Why
Light intervention – brevity of 140 characters allows
less but more often
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

15. Why
Lifelong – connections made in the class can
support further independent learning
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

16. Why not
 Distraction
 Reliance on 3rd party services
 Privacy
 Educational value
 Equality
 [Facebook]
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

17. Funding Opportunity
 Want to develop some
of these ideas further?
 JISC Grant 04/08:
Learning and teaching
innovation - £50k 1 year
 More info & insider tips
http://bit.ly/insideLTIG
Piles of Money by Thomas Hawk
Cost, Reach and Engagement #jiscwf #n2

18. @mhawksey
RSC MASHe http://bit.ly/mashe
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

19. Feedback tweets
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3

20. Using Twitter to augmenting other
educational resources
 Lecture capture enhancement
– iTitle – playing back video of live events with what was
said in the back channel
http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/mashe/ititle/estict.html
– uTitle – letting students make timeline based comments
on video resources http://www.rsc-ne-
scotland.org.uk/mashe/utitle/int.php?v=wO9RDEXfnTI
Festive Tweets #jiscwf #s3