Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to enhance social presence

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Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to enhance social presence

Joanna C. Dunlap
Patrick R. Lowenthal

Abstract

To be truly effective, online learning must facilitate the social process of learning. This involves providing space and opportunities for students and faculty to engage in social activities. Although learning management systems offer several tools that support social learning and student engagement, the scope, structure, and functionality of those tools can inhibit and restrain just-in-time social connections and interactions. In this teaching tip, we describe our use of Twitter to encourage freeflowing just-in-time interactions and how these interactions can enhance social presence in online courses. We then describe instructional benefits of Twitter, and conclude with guidelines for incorporating Twitter in online courses.

Keywords

Social Presence, Teaching Presence, Cognitive Presence, Online Learning, Twitter, Social Interaction, Microblogging, Microsharing, Community Of Inquiry, Social Networking, Student Engagement

Annotation

This article focuses on the shortcomings of Learning Management Systems (LMS) when it comes to creating social presence. Though LMSs offer areas that replicate classroom time/space (dropbox, discussions etc.), they don’t provide a space for the informal interactions before/after class, during breaks, and random faculty-student meetings. Based on their experiences using twitter in the classroom, the authors offer 5 guidelines for using twitter in the instructional context, (1) Establish Relevance for Students, (2) Define Clear Expectations for Participation, (3) Model Effective Twitter Use, (4) Build Twitter-derived Results into Assessment, (5) Continue to Actively Participate in Twitter.

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