Teaching with Technology

Some say that developing technologically literate students is prime in our expanding Internet age. And some would argue that technology does not need to be considered as a significant component in teaching and learning, and it should not come before the face to face human interaction in classroom. No matter what the age group you speak about collaborating technology in education, you will always be encountered with different reactions from the people.

A few weeks ago, I read an article about Twitter collaboration in college teaching, and the 50 ideas the author suggested surprised me positively. Not knowing Twitter has caught eyes of some educators (since its birth), I used Twitter last semester as one of my teaching tools for my undergraduate and graduate Keyboard Skills courses in addition to blogging and working their composition project using music notation software. Among the other ways to communicate with students, Twitter was selected due to its effortless way in to post video clips, to receive instant responses, and to share musical thoughts and creative ideas, and certainly more, on the web. To be honest, I was not a Twitter user until I made my course syllabi. I have read and watched news reports about the “new phenomenon” of the 21st century and began to think of its potentials and academic benefits for my students. It took some time to initiate its value in the beginning due to students’ lack of trust or understanding, as majority of the students had to work “extra hours” to open an account that they did not seem to care about. In fact, I thought most of the students already “Tweet” and would be enthusiastic about it. It also took some time to substantiate its validation due to some of the students were still measuring Twitter only as “social networking” website. According to the author of ’50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom’, it has caught fire across many professional fields as well as personally, but it seems to be in the beginning stages in the realm of higher education. The author continues that the creative ways Twitter users have incorporated microblogging has become inspirational, so the recent trend of using Twitter at college is sure to keep evolving into an ever more impressive tool. But I had to take gradual steps in order to make these students “believe” and trust that Twitter can be used with academic intention.

I would say that my teaching experience with Twitter collaboration was affirmative and hopeful. But I have no doubt that I would have to go through the same (and somewhat) painful process if I decide to use it again in the future because there still would be students (or faculty) with unconvinced view on Twitter collaboration in the classroom. In this case, Twitter is not the problem. It is about the different social aspect of the “app” that everyone loves to hate, as Clive Thompson describes in his article, ‘How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense’.

Today, technology is simply 21st Century life tool, which will access information effectively and efficiently, and evaluating information critically and competently for the issue or problem at hand. It is critical for educators to introduce and address its academic value and benefit. It is also significant that teachers and students need to be unprejudiced to collaborating technology in teaching and learning. Educators may need to prepare for its sore process, but it is more important to be able to reprocess its academic challenge in positive and productive way. After all, Twitter is just Twitter. Don’t be bothered by this little bird.

’50 Ways to use twitter in the college classroom’. Retrieved from
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/

Thomson, C. (2007). Clive Thompson on how twitter creates a social sixth sense.
Wired Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson