Social Media in the Classroom
Discussion 8
What is Social Media?
Social media is web 2.0 sites and applications that allow users to communicate with each other and share information, ideas, news, and other information. Various social media tools can be used personally and professionally.
Twitter is a social media platform that allows it's users just 140 characters to share what's on their mind. Tweeters use hashtags to highlight keywords in the tweets. Hashtags are searchable which is a nice feature.
Diigo
Diigo is a social bookmaking tool that allows users to bookmark sites from any computer. Diigo accounts are shared and people can add bookmarks as well as annotate them.
Todays Meet
A backchannel for the questions, comments, and feedback during any class or presentation.
Twitter in the Classroom
I taught an honors seminar last summer and since it was only 5 weeks long and my students had to read 10 books during that time I assigned them twitter book reviews. They were allowed up to 10 tweets per book and they had to hashtag the title of the book so I could search for their tweets. Most of the students were saavy enough to use my twitter handle so their reviews would go directly to me. It was a great way to stay in touch in real time with my students as they were reading and I received some great tweets about the books.
One author searched his book title (#septembergirls) on twitter to see if there was any buzz about it and through his innocent search, he found my class! The students asked him great content questions via twitter and I set up an author Skype visit with him. The students LOVED it!
Abby Moore, Education Librarian
Email: amoore164@uncc.edu
Location: UNC Charlotte, University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC, United States
Twitter: @uncclibrarian