RESEARCH PAPER TEMPLATE

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in EDLE & CUIN
EDUC 5324: INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO EDUCATION
Name: IBRAHIM OZKAYA

Date:

09/19/2015

Topic Selected:
What are the Educational uses of Facebook or other social media (e.g. twitter) (K-12 or higher
education)

1. LITERATURE REVIEW:
What does the literature/research say about this issue/topic? By using NAU
Library or Online Search engines, conduct a literature review.

You need to include 5 different sources (book, journal article, web article
etc.) in your review. Try to use current sources as much as possible.

You need to summarize and synthesize your sources by discussing a

common theme or issue.

You don't need to critique your sources

You don't need to evaluate your sources (if the sources are trustworthy,
weather the author has a bias or not)

You need to provide background information such as history and

definitions

Brief Literature Review:

SOCIAL MEDIA IN EDUCATION
Social media services afford users ways to digitally interact, communicate,
and collaborate that were not available just a decade ago. While citizens
worldwide use these media for democratic and imaginative purposes, social
studies educators, and educators in general, have been slow to explore these
technologies that are increasingly a part of the daily lives of K-12 students. Even
though many schools still block or filter such sites, some social studies educators
have found creative ways to use services like Twitter. We explain how social
studies educators can, and have, used the microblogging service Twitter. We
then detail an example of a classroom-tested lesson where one of the co-authors
utilized the service to craft a dynamic, participatory, and complex lesson that
helped his students explore the beliefs of philosophers of the Enlightenment era.
Many of the successful online sites that survived the dot-com bubble in the early

days of the 21st century went beyond providing a product to be consumed, and
instead afforded users platforms for collaboration (OReilly, 2012). The collective
intelligence and synergy of groups drove websites such as Wikipedia, Facebook,
and eventually twitter. These Web 2.0 and social media sites induced a paradigm
shift in a media environment where elites had long produced information and the
general public consumed it. Rosen (2012) aptly dubbed the latter group the
people formerly known as the audience because of their ability to create media
and participate in larger conversations. These new digital spaces allowed people
to readily coalesce around shared interests without regard for geographic
limitations. The participatory ethic inherent in these new media offered new
possibilities for a wide array of fields.
Even though young people are increasingly using social media in their everyday
lives (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010), educational institutions in
general, and the social studies in particular, have been slow to explore how these
services might enrich the field. Many social studies teachers have simultaneously
led class discussions concerning the democratic role social media services
played in revolutions against oppressive regimes during the Arab Spring
(Zuckerman, 2010), recent protests in Turkey (Barbera & Metzger, 2013),
elections worldwide, or even in the crowdsourcing of a new constitution (Morris,
2012), but fail to imagine that these same services might foster democratic
experiences in their classrooms and schools. The National Council for the Social
Studies (NCSS) lamented that students face a digital disconnect as they walk
into social studies classrooms and are asked to disengage from the online world
in which many spend much time and energy (2009). The NCSS further
challenged social studies teachers to change both how and what we teach so
students are better able to THE ENLIGHTENMENT MEETS TWITTER USING
SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM shape democracy in
this new millennium (p. 187).
The new digital tools that are accessible to youth today have lowered the costs
of production and circulation, decreasing the investment of skills and money
required to meaningfully shape our culture, and thus have paved the way for
more voices to be heard (Clinton, Jenkins, & McWilliams, 2013). Jenkins et al.
(2009) even argue that the informal online learning environments in which many
young people freely join have resulted in participatory cultures that may

represent ideal learning environments (p. 10). Using a social media service
such as Twitter with students can also provide an opportunity to model valuable
skills and dispositions regarding digital citizenship and social media literacies
(Rheingold, 2010).
The social studies discipline has long been dominated by practices that neither
speak to the democratic mission of the field nor enliven students (Evans, 2004).
Traditional models of education, legitimized by much of the standardized testing
movement of the last quarter century, often require students to simply regurgitate
facts of the disciplines via lectures or textbooks. Curricula and methods of
instruction are often determined without consideration of the interests or needs of
particular students and their situations. While it is questionable whether such
methods were ever appropriate, they seem indefensible in a digital age where
information is more accessible, tentative, and shifting than ever before. Social
media does not offer a panacea to educational problems, and these services
could certainly be used for dogmatic, ineffective, and misguided activities, but put
to use in pedagogically sound ways, they could afford educational experiences
that were previously unfeasible.
Despite the general tendency to block, filter, or overlook the educational potential
of social media, many social studies educators have employed these new media
in sophisticated and creative ways. In fact, this paper is a byproduct of the Web
2.0 era as it was within a digital space on Twitter that we, the authors of this
article, a social studies teacher in Massachusetts and an education professor in
Texas, met. Here, we provide background to how twitter, one of the most popular
social media services, has been used in the field. We will then detail a lesson
that Milton taught in his classroom that offers an illustrative example of the
dynamic role this medium can play in social studies classrooms.Krutka, D. d., &
Milton, M. m. (2013)
Twitter
Microblogging refers to the use of technologies to write short messages
that are usually available for viewing by the general population. Twitter, currently
the most recognized micro-blogging tool, allows for users to post messages,
called tweets of up to 140 characters in length, including links to other online
resources. Twitter users can follow, reply, private message, or re-publish each
others posts (known as retweeting) creating communication opportunities not

just with those they follow and are followed by, but also the people in the Twitter
networks of those users (Gao, Luo, & Zhang, 2012). Users can access their
accounts through the Twitter website or by using applications on a computer or
mobile device.
Twitter is frequently used at academic conferences, with a conference hashtag
being established by the conference organizers or attendees. Attendees and
others following the hashtag can engage in conversation, share resources or
simply follow the happenings at the conference. The use of Twitter for such event
specific communication is often referred to as a backchannel. Many of the
recommendations that Chickering and Gameson (1987) listed can be
accomplished or at least aided by the integration of certain types of learning
technologies including Twitter.
Scholars, including Drexler, Baralt, and Dawson (2008) have argued for the
integration for such purposes and there is a growing body of literature supporting
the use of microblogging tools in face-to-face higher education courses. Junco,
Heiberger, and Loken (2011) found that the integration of microblogging tools in
higher education classes increased student engagement. In an analysis of
existing studies, Gao, Luo, and Zhang (2012) found that the use of Twitter in
courses may also help build connections between students and other students
(as well as instructors).
Further, those connections may persist beyond the duration of the class, though
they did note that the differences among the identified studies in terms of
settings, sample size, duration and quality, made the results of the overall
analysis inconclusive (Gao et al., 2012, p. 794).
There are a number of benefits to the use of a Twitter backchannel compared to
more prevalent learning technologies such as email or discussion forums. Ross
(2013) discussed how the brevity, timeliness, and openness of Twitter provide
opportunities for use in ways not possible with many other learning technologies.
For example, while students can answer each others questions through email or
discussion forums, this is not ideal for quick questions such as where a particular
lab might be located or if students have resources to share with the rest of their
class. More open methods of communication such as microblogging allow former
students to connect, advise and answer questions. This is not possible using the
communication tools in most learning management systems (LMS), such as

Blackboard, since generally institutions only allow current students into course
sections on the institutions LMS. These open methods also allow experts in the
discipline being studied to enter conversations much like the potential former
students. Students are able to see real-life examples of the topics, issues and
events being covered in class. For example, students in a first-year political
studies course can follow news coverage and candidates during an election
cycle. As Tess (2013) noted, the research on the effectiveness of the integration
of microblogging tools into higher education for increasing student engagement
and developing a sense of community is inconclusive. There are also questions
about whether students will want to use Twitter as part of a class. McNeil (2010)
found that students were more interested in using social networking tools like
Facebook, over Twitter because their friends and family were already on it, while
Welch and Bonnan-White (2012) found that students may suffer from log-in
overload because of the number of online sites and tools (i.e. the LMS, email
and Twitter) they may need to access for a class.
The researchers involved in the study documented in this paper were interested
to see if the integration of Twitter for academic purposes in large lecture courses
would help reduce student isolation and assist in developing a sense of
community in those classes. The researchers also wanted to add to the existing
body of literature by determining potential best practices for integration. This
study examined the students level of interest in using microblogging in large
lecture courses and attempted to determine if such use increased students selfreported sense of community and sense of belonging. Ross, H. M., Banow, R., &
Yu, S. (2015)
Student Views on the Use of Twitter in Lecture Courses
The researchers also were interested in the students views on the use of
Twitter in lecture courses. Students were asked if they would recommend using
Twitter as a backchannel (a means of communicating about the course both
inside class during lectures and discussion that also has the ability to continue
outside of class) for post-secondary classes. Overall, 36.6% of students indicated
that they would recommend it while 23.6% said that they would not, and 39.8%
were undecided.
In addition, the researchers looked to see if there was a difference between
those who had participated in the Twitter portion of the course and those who

had not. Of those who had participated, 59.4% said they would recommend the
use of Twitter as a backchannel for postsecondary classes, 11.8% said they
would not and 28.7% said they were undecided. Of those who had indicated that
they had not taken part in the Twitter portion of the course, 18.3% said yes,
33.1% said, no and 48.6% were undecided.
The students were given the opportunity to provide their views on why they would
or would not recommend the use of Twitter in post-secondary classes in the form
of an open-ended question. An initial review of this data revealed some recurring
themes:
Students did not like having to check multiple places (i.e. Twitter, email and
Blackboard) for information from the instructor.
Students saw Twitter as a tool for social interactions, but did not see its
relevance to the class.
Some students did like having a place to go for quick information such as
whether class was cancelled.
A few of the student comments indicated that they saw a usefulness for Twitter
in postsecondary, but that they did not like how it was used in their particular
class.
The researchers also wanted to know whether the students who had indicated
that they had not taken part in the Twitter portion of the course declined to
participate due to the public nature of Twitter. These students were asked Would
you have been more likely to use Twitter if it wasnt public? Only 17.9% of
students said yes to this question with 82.1% saying no (undecided was not
an option).
Twitter Integration Effect on Student Sense of Community and Belonging
The researchers were interested in whether the integration of Twitter in the
lecture courses would have any effect on the students sense of community and
sense of belonging in large courses. Students were asked a set of questions
aimed at measuring different facets of classroom community. Each item was
asked on a six-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly
agree. Mann-Whitney U Tests were used to determine whether differences
existed between those who indicated they had participated in the Twitter portion
of the course and those who had not. As shown in Table 7, it was uncovered that
students who participated in the Twitter portion of the course were significantly

more likely to perceive that it is easy to find support from other students outside
of class (U = 39277.5, z = -2.10, p = 0.04) and feel that they are encouraged to
find and share educational resources with others when compared to students
who had not participated in the Twitter portion of the course (U = 36969.5, z =
-3.17, p = 0.002). Moreover, students who had participated in the Twitter portion
of the course were significantly more likely to agree that there is a sense of
community amongst students and the instructors in the course than those who
had not (U = 36414.5, z = -3.32, p = 0.001).
Finally, when asked if students felt it is easy to get help when they have a
question in the course, minimal differences were found between the two groups.
There are a number of limitations to this study. The researchers may have been
better served by using existing methods of measuring sense of community,
namely the Classroom Community Scale (CCS) developed by Rovai and Jordan
(2004). Relying on participants to define community and belonging calls into
question the validity of the data. The fact that the questions on the surveys
changed between the two years of the study makes it even less likely that the
data around those questions can be trusted.
After the first year of the study and initial analysis of results, the researchers
made changes to some of the survey questions, as well as adding some
additional questions to the survey. Following the analysis of the data after the
second year of the study, the researchers viewed the wording of some of the
questions, including the differences in scales as problematic. There were several
different scales included with a variety of wording and scale size. The changes to
the survey questions may have led to confusion on the part of the students and
complicated the analysis of the data. The survey should be redeveloped for any
future studies on this topic.
The response rate was moderately higher when paper-based surveys were
administered in class than when electronic administration of the surveys was
used. The change came after a request from one of the instructors. The
researchers agreed as both a method of cost-savings and for environmental
reasons as well as saving time in the administration (handing out and collecting
surveys from the students in class) and input of the data (typing the data into the
survey tool). While there were paper copies of the surveys offered to the
students, the move to mainly electronic surveys may have resulted in not

reaching some of the students without laptops, smart phones or tablets or those
uncomfortable with technology or preferring not to answer online.
Finally, the researchers should have asked students to indicate their gender on
the post-term surveys as they did on the pre-term surveys to help determine how
representative a sample there was for the post-term surveys.
The researchers relied on participants to self-report on their sense of
community and sense of belonging. While the students who took part in the
Twitter portion of the course did report a higher sense of community, there was
little difference in terms of sense of engagement. Further research into this area
using a validated scale such as the CCS developed by Rovai and Jordan would
be prudent to better understand if Twitter has any impact on these elements in
large lecture courses.
Based on the research in this study, it is not possible to determine whether the
use of Twitter added to the sense of community and sense of engagement or
those who perceived a sense of community and a sense of engagement were
more like to use Twitter because of the nature of their personalities. This is an
area that may warrant further research.
The students in the courses in this study seemed disinterested in making use of
Twitter as a backchannel in higher education, though they did not dismiss the
notion outright. While 45% of participants said that they participated in the Twitter
portion of the course, the lack of tweets students sent to the course account or
use of the corresponding hashtags, leads the researchers to question whether
the students overestimated their own participation or defined their participation
broadly to include simply reading some of the tweets. The increase in
participation from 17.6% of students in year 1 of the Nursing course to 27.2% in
year 2 may be a result of the Nursing instructor limiting the sharing of some
information to Twitter instead of reposting it in the LMS. Based on the data, the
public nature of Twitter did not play a role in the lack of Twitter use amongst the
students. While only 36.6% of the participants would recommend the use of
Twitter as a backchannel in post-secondary classes, 39.8%, the largest single
block, were undecided. This may mean that the students see a potential for the
user of Twitter for academic purposes, but did not see enough value in the way it
was used in this study. This is another area that should be researched more
thoroughly to determine if microblogging in general (or social media overall) and

Twitter more specifically is something that students see a value in being

integrated into their learning.
Overall, the lack of student interest in using Twitter is in line with what McNeil
(2010) found and could be linked to the log-in overload phenomenon that Welch
and Bonnan-White (2012) noted or simply a general dislike of this particular tool.
Despite the issues detailed in the Limitations section of this paper, the research
appears to show similar results as others have previously noted when looking at
both small and larger lecture courses, including student interest in using Twitter
in class (Welch & Bonnan-White, 2012; Lin etal., 2013). While students in our
study did not appear to be interested in using the tool for learning in these
specific courses, they did show some openness to potential uses in
postsecondary education. This indicates further research into best practices for
Twitter integration is warranted. In addition, the increase in sense of community
among those students who did take part in the Twitter portion of the classes is
promising. Ross, H. M., Banow, R., & Yu, S. (2015)
USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM
This section explores the use of social media to support learning in the
classroom, in particular the use of blogs for discussion support, wikis for
collaborative authoring, and group environments for student project team
support. Social media tools support both constructivist and collaborative learning
pedagogies [Crook et al., 2008]. They help students create and map knowledge
to their own life experiences. Further, carefully selected and configured social
media tools support effective structured collaboration, preparing students with
virtual work skills that will help them navigate in the twenty-first century
workplace. These tools also adapt well to different learning environments, from
traditional classroom, through blended, to pure online learning courses.
While the commonly used Learning Management Systems (LMS)Blackboard,
Desire2Learn (D2L), and Moodle, for exampleintegrate considerable social
media functionality under the hood, some instructors may find LMS solutions
constraining. Fortunately, there are many low-cost and free Web 2.0 alternatives
that offer different or greater functionality. Several advantages exist from staying
within the LMS umbrella: single sign-on and single destination sandbox is
inherently simpler for nontechnical students; and the firewall of the LMS may
support confidentiality policies that exist at some institutions. On the other hand,

many of the Web2.0 social media offerings contain useful functionality not
available in an LMS. The right solution will depend on the particular situation.
This section lays out social media tool functions based on three basic forms of
classroom interaction. While some Web 2.0 products are mentioned (with URLs
at the end of the section), it is for the reader to determine the best product
solution in each case. Demand for Social Media in the Classroom It makes sense
that students will gravitate toward using social media. The 2011 PEW/Internet
Report on College Students reports that 99 percent of all college students in the
U.S. are Internet users [Smith, 2011]. Ninety-two percent of all undergraduates
and 88 percent of all graduate students use wireless connectivity (smartphone,
tablet, or laptop) to access the Internet, well above the percentages for the adult
U.S. population as a whole. In spite of this level of social media use, most college
students have not been taught to evaluate their media choices or message
structures. They have developed a vernacular based on the social norms of
middle and high school. The college classroom provides the laboratory for these
students to evolve their communication habits into effective collaboration skills
they can use in the workplace.
And the twenty-first century workplace most definitely demands such skills. Not
only is work becoming more virtual: World at Work estimates that more than 26
million American workers telework at least one day a month [Moore et al., 2011].
These numbers, as a percentage of the workforce, grow each year. In addition,
more of this virtual work is becoming international. One implication is that work
becomes more virtual, more collaborative, and more likely multicultural
[Friedman, 2005]. Teaching with social media creates the opportunity to model
effective online engagement and effective virtual collaboration.
Teaching with Blogs In spite of the prevalence of Internet use by college
students, surveys of our students suggest that many current students are
comfortable only with e-mail or texting. Many, if not most, are consumers of
social media but have never commented on a blog, never contributed to a wiki,
and never reviewed an online product. Surveying your students about their social
media behaviors is an excellent first step to broach the conversation of
possibilities with them. An excellent second step is to require them to contribute
to a blog, wiki, or shopping review. Krutka, D. d., & Milton, M. m. (2013)
Twitter, the 140 character or less microblogging application, has received popular

attention in the mass media for its entertainment value, but it remains a novelty
for many. Users can post and read short messages of text and picture through
Twitters website interface or various other applications. According By Meng-Fen
Grace Lin, Ellen S. Hoffman, Claire Borengasser, University of Hawaii at Manoa
to a 2012 report by Pew Internet & American Life Project, only fifteen percent of
online adults studied subscribed to Twitter with eight percent using it daily (Smith
& Brenner, 2012); 54 percent of users access the service through their mobile
phones (Smith, 2011). While numerous articles and conference papers propose
interesting possibilities for and contain anecdotes about Twitter use in
classrooms and online learning (Ferriter, 2010), its potential remains uncertain
with limited empirical evidence to support the claims (Veletsianos, 2011).
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to formally study the uses of
Twitter when used as a supplement to online and face-to-face (F2F) classroom
learning among undergraduate and graduate students in a college of education.
What can you really say in 140 characters or less? Can Twitter be an effective
teaching and learning tool? What are technical issues that arise when tweets are
introduced into university courses? What do students say about using Twitter for
course communication? Using the content of student tweets and self reports, the
study provides evidence on student perceptions and use that can be helpful to
those considering Twitter in higher education classes.Krutka, D. d., & Milton, M.
m. (2013)
MAYBE Sugato Chakravarty should wear a helmet to class. The professor of
consumer sciences and retailing at Purdue University repeatedly attempts the
instructional equivalent of jumping a motorcycle over a row of flaming barrels.
Asking 250 students to post questions on Twitter during a class doesn't risk life or
limb. But it can cause ego damage if students get disorderly online. As
Chakravarty paces the front of a stadium-style lecture hall, some students crack
jokes anonymously in an official web forum. The course is one of two at Purdue
testing homemade software called Hotseat, which lets students key in questions
from their cell phones or laptops, using Twitter or Facebook. A constant stream of
comments, often tangential, accompanies his talks. An incident of cheating came
up early in the semester a student asked classmates for a quiz answer. During
one session, students took over the back channel to ask the professor to cancel
class Thanksgiving week so they could have a longer vacation. "So with 41 votes

are we not having class that Monday of Thanksgiving?" asked one hopeful
student after others had endorsed the sentiment. (The class still met.)
The moment is telling. Opening up a Twitter-powered channel in class which
professors at other universities are experimenting with as well alters
classroom power dynamics and signals to students that they're in control. Fans of
the approach applaud technology that promises to change professors' role from
"sage on the stage" to "guide on the side." Those phrases are familiar to
education reformers, who have long argued that education must be more
interactive to hold the interest of today's students.
The unanswered question, though, is whether that theory can work in practice.
That uncertainty actually excites Chakravarty and other daredevil professors
attempting this teaching trick. "You are vulnerable out there," he said. "Students
really don't hold back. If you say something wrong or something that they don't
agree with, they'll let you know, and everybody else will see it." Many colleagues
are watching such experiments with a mix of curiosity and disbelief to see how
the professors land. Students seem to love the chance to make their voices
heard in class without having to actually speak. About 75% of the students make
use of Hotseat, even though it is not required.
Emboldened Students
One student, Ben Van Wye, told me, "I'm not that outspoken in class, so I
would never ask a question out loud to the professor. But you can type it in as
anonymous, so nobody really knows if what you're asking is a dumb question."
That anonymity leads to questions the professor says he never heard before in a
course he has taught for years. But it has also raised new issues of classroom
management.
Early in the semester, for instance, there was the cheating incident. While
students were taking a short multiple-choice quiz, a student asked his
classmates anonymously, he thought for an answer via Twitter. But the way
Purdue set up its home-built software, students must log in to use the system.
Chakravarty could identify the student, even though the tweet was labeled
"anonymous" in the view that students saw. Busted. "So I called him into my
office and said, 'Don't do that, it's cheating,'" said the professor. "And he started
crying and said he'd never do it again."
At other times, lecture topics have been pulled in unexpected directions. One

day, the topic was car insurance. Chakravarty was telling students that getting
married usually lowers your insurance rate when a student typed in a clever
question that caused a teaching assistant, Adam Hagen, to laugh out loud. The
professor stopped his lecture midsentence to ask Hagen what the students were
up to.
"There's a question here that says, 'What happens if you get married, and then
you get divorced at 24 would your insurance go back up?'" said Hagen,
prompting laughter from students. The answer, apparently, is no, as the TA.
Explained aloud to the class. "So if you want to get married for the sake of having
lower insurance, go right ahead," he said playfully. Though the lecture then
turned to other issues, students in the course continued to joke on Hot-seat
about the idea that someone would get married for an insurance discount. "That
happens," said Chakravarty about the chatter that had been going on under his
nose. "You have some meaningless stuff, but it's followed by some very good
questions that would never be asked." He usually stops his lecture a couple of
times during class to address questions on Hotseat. At first he stood at the
lectern glancing at the screen frequently as he spoke, but that proved too
distracting.
Asked him if he thinks the system shifts too much control to students, he said
students in class are online or texting on their phones anyway, so why not try to
channel that energy to class discussion? "To force them to behave in a certain
way is not respect," he said. "If you want respect, you have to earn it. To mandate
respect is stupid."
I asked Van Wye, the student, whether some students end up derailing class
sessions thanks to Hotseat. "Yeah, perhaps, because sometimes you have
people writing funny comments, and we have to stop and kind of acknowledge
that it happened," he said. "And sometimes that takes away from it a little bit." On
balance, though, he would vote to keep the software: "It does more good than it
does hurt."
Potential for Disaster?
Monica A. Rankin, an assistant professor of history at the University of
Texas at Dallas, ran a similar experiment last semester, using Twitter as a back
channel during an American-history class with 90 students.
"There is certainly the potential for disaster," she said. During one class session

about abortion, for instance, students began an argument on Twitter that Rankin
characterized as "nonproductive and nonacademic." She said her teaching
assistant quickly brought the flame war to her attention, and "we basically
changed topics at that point."
The university produced a video about Ms. Rankin's class that makes Twitter
seem like the next great revolution in teaching it conveniently leaves out any
downsides.Rankin made clear that she approached Twitter cautiously she did
wear a virtual helmet the class met three days a week, but only one part of one
session involved the back-channel discussion. "The rest was a traditional
format," she said.
Only two or three out of 90 students in the class said they had used Twitter
previously, so some time was sapped helping them sign up for accounts and get
used to the technology. And because some students did not like to bring laptops
to class, and some had cell phone plans that charged them for each tweet, the
professor decided to offer a decidedly low-tech alternative: Students could write
their questions or comments on slips of paper and hand them to the teaching
assistant, who then typed the messages into Twitter.
Rankin's conclusion is that the experiment went pretty well (no real disasters),
but that setting up a back channel is not for every professor, or every course.
"Instructors in the classroom really have to teach toward their personalities," she
said. "Colleagues have told me there is no way they would do this in their class
this would make them uncomfortable."
Fans of the approach applaud technology that promises to change professors'
role from "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side."
"There is certainly the potential for disaster. " Young, J. R. (2010).

2. REFLECTION:

What is your personal opinion on this issue? Do you agree with the
research? If you agree or disagree, please explain why?
Provide examples/experiences regarding this issue from school
perspective or If you are not working in a school, from your profession. Be
specific with your examples. You can mention software/hardware names,
specific methods that you plan to use, etc.
How would you implement this research in your career? (At least 1
paragraph)

Reflection:

I always knew that twitter can be involved in the classrooms, but I never knew the extent of it's
usefulness. After reading the many uses of social media in literature review to incorporate twitter
into classroom, I feel encouraged to do the same. On the other hand, there is always a chance
that students will have two or more twitter accounts and tweet during class. However, this is no
different than students passing notes in class. This has been going on as long as there have been
students. However, I do not feel this justifies not using twitter in the classroom. Twitter is yet
another way we can use technology to engage students in the classroom.
We can conclude the notion that instructors should use popular social media to connect with
students. This is because of on the idea of using social media such as Facebook and Twitter
because that is where the students are. Therefore, school staff can communicate with students in
the ways they prefer. However, social media uses for class do not fully parallel the ways students
or faculty use social media in their personal lives. Further, non-course related content of many
tweets often buried tweets whereas with information and interaction more directly related to the
course. While some students enjoyed the social aspects, more objected to the amount of
incoming information.
Something I have been experimenting with lately has been using twitter to supplement our
learning. Ive talked one of the teacher who is friend of me, he decided that Twitter is a great tool
for his Field Trips. One of the advantages is that many of our students already have smart phones
and nearly all of them have a twitter account. They agreed that each small group of four to five
students could work collaboratively so that the students without the latest blackberry, iPhone or
android device did not have to feel left out.
So we can use twitter to; connect to students, enthuse students, ask questions, record data,
record impressions, provide a record for parents to follow, encourage student to student
communication, provide real time feedback to individuals, but also the whole audience, and can
be followed up later in the classroom.
Our school have been running field trip for our CRLP students for the last 4 years. The main
purpose is to practice some techniques such as data logging and other field studies, some of
which they have already learned about in class. Our plan was to use twitter in addition to
notebooks, though ultimately hed like to think that twitter could replace notebooks on field trips.
Firstly, he defined a good hashtag, something short without using too much of the 140 character
limit, logical which makes it easy to remember and unique. Which keeps it confined to class or
trip. Last year, when he first tried this he used # place being their destination.
How can I use social media in my career?
As a teacher we have taken advantage of Twitters format to keep our classes engaged and upto-date on the latest technologies. By different ways we can provide our students with Twitter in
the classroom to create important and lasting lessons. For instance, at the conclusion of each
lecture, ask students to type a 140-character or less summary of what they have learned and
perhaps pose any questions to be considered in the next class.
Using Twitter in the classroom is limited only by an educators imagination. Though many believe
its limitations prevent valuable applications to an academic setting, teachers have learned

that using Twitter in education can establish a nurturing classroom for students of all ages.
So we can say that Social media based discussions are focused, measureable, and monitorable.
They can enhance between-class learning for traditional in-room courses, or provide structure to
discussion environments for blended and online courses.

3. REFERENCES:

Cite at least 5 References in APA.

You may use http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-journal for citing
your sources in APA style.

References:

Krutka, D. d., & Milton, M. m. (2013). THE ENLIGHTENMENT MEETS

TWITTER: USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES
CLASSROOM. Ohio Social Studies
Lin, M., Hoffman, E., & Borengasser, C. (2013). Is Social Media Too Social for
Class? A Case Study of Twitter Use. Techtrends: Linking Research &
Practice To Improve Learning, 57(2), 39-45. doi:10.1007/s11528-0130644-2
Ross, H. M., Banow, R., & Yu, S. (2015). The Use of Twitter in Large Lecture
Courses: Do the Students See a Benefit? Contemporary Educational
Technology, 6(2), 126-139.
Shim, J. J., Dekleva, S., Chengqi, G., & Mittleman, D. (2011). Twitter, Google,
iPhone/iPad, and Facebook (TGIF) and Smart Technology Environments:
How Well Do Educators Communicate with Students via
TGIF? Communications Of The Association For Information
Systems, 29657-672.
Young, J. R. (2010). Teaching with Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart. Education
Digest: Essential Readings Condensed For Quick Review, 75(7), 9-12.