Learning & Technology

Using Social Media to engage students in lectures

A.G. Pate

By the end of the input, I will be able to:

Success Criteria

• list 3 types of posts students can place online during a lecture/tutorial;

• post comments and questions using TodaysMeet or Twitter;

• identify the pros and cons of using TodaysMeet or Twitter during a lecture/tutorial;

• evaluate whether using social media would benefit my students and their learning;

#SC

Part A: Learning Through Doing

#LTD

•TodaysMeet poster • reinforcing

• questioning

• linking

•www.todaysmeet.com • www.todaysmeet.com/LTAGP

•During this input, use this room to: • reinforce;

• question;

• link!

Part A: Learning Through Doing

#LTD

T O D A Y S M E E T . C O M W H A T A M I L O O K I N G F O R ?

Purpose • Reinforce what you are learning • Correct misconceptions • Develop a collective ‘mindset’ of the

learning concepts

Purpose • Improve confidence to ask questions

without feeling intimidated • Share understanding to peers • Benefit from instant feedback

Purpose • Connect to wider reading and

experience • Deepen learning about the topic • Make links between learning

Reinforcing • Rephrase points in your own words • Share your version online

Questioning • Ask questions anonymously • Answer other learners’ questions.

Linking • Post online, relevant sources during

the lecture and tweet the link

© 2014 A.G. Pate Photo: Public Domain CC0. www.pixabay.com/en/binoculars-child-magnification-100590

MA Primary Education Child Dev 1 & Child Dev 2

•Child Dev 1 • Child Development Theories and Theorists (Semester 1) • Cognitive Development (Semester 2)

•Child Dev 2 • Physical Development (Semester 1) • Emotional and Social Development (Semester 2)

#CD

MA Primary Education Child Dev 1 & Child Dev 2

•Child Dev 1 (40 students) • 1 hour lecture • 30 min research discussion • 30 min SBL discussion

•Child Dev 2 (34 students) • Flip Teaching: Lecture is a video on Moodle they watch on their own time

• 45 min research discussion • 45 min SBL discussion • 30 min lecture discussion (optional)

#CD

MA Primary Education Child Dev 1 & Child Dev 2

• Students encouraged to post on TodaysMeet instead of taking notes

• The lecture notes are available on Moodle so why copy them during class? • Students sit in large room - groups of 4

• BYOD + some laptops from IT services

• Students posting individually and/or in collaborative pairs/groups

• Group responses were named (Group A, B, etc.) which corresponded to tables • Students could post responses/questions to groups • Time was given for students to visit other groups for face-to-face discussion

#CD

Practical Issues

• Not everyone had a device

• Low batteryFortunately lots of floor plugs in room

• Wifi ConnectionI crashed the campus’ wifi network on day 1. Ooops!

• Space

• Second screen/projector

#PI

Learning Issues

• Students with visual/learning challenges (e.g., dyslexia)Working in groups / providing alternatives such as scribe/reader

• Multi-tasking (for students & tutor)

• Comfort Zone

• Training students to reinforce, question & link effectively

• Student concern about how to use notes to study

#LI

Teaching Issues

• Slight impact on amount taught in first 2/3 weeks due to providing high level of:

• support • training • modelling • encouragement

• Appropriateness/professionalism of commentsWasn’t an issue after the 2nd week

#TI

Teaching Issues

• Until students ‘find their feet’ (around week 3) and learn to support others’ comments, the lecturer has higher level of distractions/deviations due to responding to posts.

• Sustained engagement throughout term

• If you make it the norm, the students will treat it as the norm • 1st year students less concerned about this methodology than 2nd year

students — due to not knowing any differently?

#TI

Teaching Issues

• Awareness of effective teaching methodologies • Giving opportunities to tweet/respond/work in groups during lecture • Shampoo methodology (rinse and repeat)

#TI

Specific Issues: TodaysMeet

• Easy to set up;

• Can set room to auto-erase after a specific length of time

• PDFs of conversation can be created and put onto Moodle;

• No easy way to differentiate between own comments and others’;

• Lack of privacy (if you know the URL, you can join in);

• Unfamiliar to all students

• Limited characters to type

#SITM

Specific Issues: Twitter

• Little bit complex to set up;

• Can’t create PDFs of whole conversation to put onto Moodle;

• Easy to differentiate between own comments and others’;

• Privacy (if set correctly); • Pictures/videos can’t be forwarded if it’s set to private

• Familiar to most students

• Use of hashtags (#).

• Limited characters to type

#SITW

Outcomes

•By the 3rd week: • three types of posts were identified:

• reinforcing; • questioning; • linking.

• poster created to help foster these types of post

• student improvement (which continued to improve throughout term) re:

• responding to others’ posts if reinforced information incorrect; • asking more relevant (and deeper) questions; • answering questions instead of tutor; • linking to other sources.

#out3

Outcomes

•By the 5th week: • 2nd year students creating their own TodaysMeet rooms to discuss the flip

teaching videos throughout the week • 1st and 2nd year students asked to try using Twitter instead mostly due to:

• desire to see own posts; • privacy issues

• Students had mixed feelings about moving from TodaysMeet • Issues re: set up (as discussed earlier)

#out5

Outcomes

•By the 8th week:

• Tutor suggests a return to TodaysMeet. Response: A resounding no.

• Students ask tutor to number slides (or #) to make it easier when notetaking.

• Number of students bringing own devices around 80%

• 1/3 - laptops;

• 1/3 - smartphones;

• 1/3 - tablets (mostly iPads)

• Students prefer own devices to IT Services’ computers

#out8

Personal Thoughts

• Challenging to start;

• “Am I being ignored?” factor;

• 2nd year students showed improved engagement over previous year;

• During discussions, important to respond to each group (reinforcement);

• Small numbers so not deluged by tweets;

• Groups made it even more manageable; •3 people discussing & 1 person posting; 1 group discussing & 1 group posting •giving each group a different hashtag (#) •Time to ask questions to other groups via posts and then visit them face-to-face

• With larger groups, TAs/various hashtags/rooms may keep it manageable

#PT

I can:

Success Criteria

• list 3 types of posts students can place online during a lecture/tutorial;

• post comments and questions using TodaysMeet or Twitter;

• identify the pros and cons of using TodaysMeet or Twitter during a lecture/tutorial;

• evaluate whether using social media would benefit my students and their learning;

#SC