SCRIPT FOR TWITTER IN HIGHER EDUCATION (GROUP 1)

ABSTRACT

The research discusses the use of Twitter as a tool for communication among

students and instructors in educational settings which results in learning. What

makes this research important is that:

It is not common to see massive use of social media platforms by

instructors and students in the higher learning environment to create

learning here in Ghana.

Apart from the fact that Twitter has a character restriction of 140 letters,

findings confirm that Twitter if wisely used can boost learning.

INTRODUCTION

Background Study

Social media platforms have presented an opportunity to a lot of educators to

extend teaching and learning processes via the internet.

Information and knowledge can thus be created and shared over the internet.

Twitter is one of the Web 2.0 tools, which allows for the sharing of

messages. Twitter users are able to post direct and indirect updates. Direct

posts (personal messages) are used when a user aims her update to a specific

person, whereas indirect updates (public messages) are used when the update

is meant for anyone that cares to read it.

This study seeks to show how to get started on Twitter and explore together

how it impacts students learning in ways such as continuing discussions after

class, effective communication of ideas, sharing of information, updates on

events, posting questions and receiving answers and also can be used as a

resource for research.

Statement of the Problem

There is so much disconnection between Instructors and Students after class

Students keep wondering about unanswered questions

However, many Students and Instructors use smart phones connected to

social media tools including twitter for social activities.

Twitter is one of the tools that help in communication between people to

bridge this communication gap irrespective of distance.

For this reason this study is meant to determine the impact of twitter on

academic activities in Higher Institutions in Ghana.

How to Set Twitter Up

1. Get an Account: http://twitter.com/

2. Setup Your Profile

3. Picture Tab: Upload a picture, also known as an Avatar

4. If you’re using a mobile phone, make sure you download the Twitter App (it’s

free).

https://louisville.edu/delphi/-/files/celebration/2016/Celebration-2016-Twitter-Basics.pdf

RELEVANCE

Relevance to Education

Twitter is one of the real-time information network social media applications

that exist today connecting people

(https://louisville.edu/delphi/-/files/celebration/2016/Celebration-2016-Twitter-Basics.pdf)

Twitter users can instantly build a personalized twitter feed that meets ones

full range of interests, both academic and personal.

Earlier studies in this area tells us that thousands of academics and

researchers at all levels of experience and across all disciplines use twitter

daily alongside more than 200 million other users. (Mollett, A., Moran, D.,

& Dunleavy, P. (2011). Using Twitter in university research, teaching

and impact activities).

Researchers can post or tweet links that lead to their research blogs for

feedbacks and comments.

According to Chris O’Neal, using twitter in an educational setup is one

sure way to get students thinking after class.

Jason A. Llorenz further advised that higher education teaching and

learning must evolve to be able to meet learners irrespective of where they

are located. The conventional way of teaching can even integrate Twitter to

open more learning opportunities for its students.

RESEARCH

Methodology

The project started with a review of literature in the Twitter sample project that

was done by students of the University of Texas, Brownsville. Data was gathered

through interviews with five (5) participants who are students and an instructor, all

of the University of Ghana, Legon. All the students created Twitter accounts and

mostly used it for academic activities. The data collected was transcribed, analysed

and compared with existing literature to draw the necessary conclusions with

recommendations.

Population Sample and Design

The population for the study was DEEL 602 students of 2015-2016 academic year

and an instructor. Out of the student population of ten (10), five (5) served as the

sample/participants for this project. We used questionnaires as the data collection

instrument. The design was such that participants were made to use Twitter for

academic work at the start of the study. This was to examine the impact on

academic activities. The research was done between March and April 2016 at the

University of Ghana, Legon.

Results and Discussion

Demographically five (5) out of the six (6) participants were males and the other, a

female. All five are currently pursuing their Master’s degree. All of them owned

smart phones and subscribed to many social media tools such as Instagram,

Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, imo, Snapchat among others. It was however found

out that most of them preferred to use WhatsApp comparatively.

All participants have subscribed to Twitter and apart from the instructor who used

it interact with his students and colleagues the rest of the participants generally use

it for various things but not academic.

All participants think that Twitter can be used for structured academic activities

like interacting with colleagues and instructors on topics earlier discussed in class,

share ideas on academic research projects and assignments, announcements,

among other things

All participants highly recommended its use at higher education institutions. The

only problem they all had with it is the character restriction of 140 letters per tweet.

For this reason they preferred to use other social media platforms that allowed

much more characters than what Twitter allows.

MULTI-MEDIA

Multimedia Tutorials

– Beginners Guide to Using Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MqUu2aIhU4

– Using Twitter in higher Education Teaching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEWzYVd92JU

– Using Twitter to improve College Student Engagement Part 1-5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgS5rR1o72E

CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATION

In conclusion, participants of this research were familiar with twitter. Some used it

social activities but now admit that twitter can be used to enhance teaching and

learning more especially for after class discussions. The use of twitter could be

very useful as it can facilitate learning but the challenge is the 140 character

restriction which we hope would be addressed soon.

It was recommended that twitter should be integrated into our academic

activities

Schools, policy makers, individuals and many more should be educated on

how to use twitter responsibly for academic purposes.

We recommend it for organisations, NGO’s and other businesses to use it to

facilitate communication on the job to improve performance.

We recommend further research in the use of social media platforms like

twitter in Ghanaian educational institutions (pre-tertiary) to see how it can

aid teaching and learning.