This semester I am teaching a course on integrating technology in the classroom and at the start of the semester one of the students asked if I would be requiring the use of Twitter.  When I responded that we would not be using it in the class the student responded with relief because they just didn’t see how Twitter could be used in the classroom.  Twitter to these pre-service teachers is social media and not a teaching tool.  While Twitter has great value and connection to classroom practices I will concede that it is sometimes hard to see.  So instead of trying to convince anyone of the specific merits of Twitter I instead focused on the value of backchannel conversations and how they are more effectively fostered using technology.

Picture this, you are in a classroom where the instructor is using the Fishbowl teaching strategy to engage students in a discussion.  Observe the students outside of the fishbowl.  What are they doing?  Some will genuinely be paying attention to the discussion going on; others will appear to be paying attention but the vacant stare will indicate otherwise; still others will be doodling on paper or thinking they are slyly using their cellphone without the instructor noticing (note to students: you aren’t that subtle, the instructor always notices.)  When the instructor invites other students to join the discussion or offer observations the room is mostly silent with the same students who always participate raising their hand.  The instructor ends the class frustrated wondering how can they implement the strategy differently to get better results.  Here are two options that take advantage of those cellphones and puts them to good use (and yes, one of the options is Twitter)…

TodaysMeet is best described as an internal Twitter-type web tool. You can use it in a number of ways in the classroom.  A colleague of mine shared with me that they use it often during student presentations.  Students listening to their peer’s presentation can comment, pose questions to each other, and offer feedback that can be shared with the presenter when done.  It allows those listening to engage with the presentation in the moment instead of being passive observers.  Plus, as my colleague mentioned, when you have a good rapport with your class you can call out students dosing in class over TodaysMeet and the person sitting next to them are kind enough to give them a nudge…

And if we go back to our fishbowl scenario, TodaysMeet offers an excellent opportunity for students to extend the conversation going on in the center of the fishbowl while posing different questions and creating side conversations that complement and go beyond what they are listening to.  Professor James Chisholm recently presented at AACTE his research showing the benefits of using TodaysMeet for these types of backchannel conversations to promote critical thinking and analysis as well as integrate the use of digital tools  in a high school English classroom.

Using Twitter for group discussions has become so ubiquitous that it even has its own phrase, Twitterchat.  There are many pros and cons to using Twitter for group discussions rather than a private channel like TodaysMeet.  Twitter is a more common tool that students are likely to already be familiar with.  The use of hastags is also a common social practice so connecting comments is easy for students to do – you just need to make sure students are aware of what the discussion hashtag is ahead of time.  It is also a great way for students in different sections of the same course to interact with each other for a larger discussion using the course hashtag.  Given the open nature of Twitter some cons for using it can be that students may get overwhelmed by the number of tweets associated with a hashtag.  Hashtags are also open to trolling or spamming however Alexis Lothian’s amusing and informative story on her experience using twitter in the classroom offer some tips and strategies to deal with it.

Going back to our classroom discussing using the Fishbowl strategy, picture it in your mind again.  This time, the students listening to the discussion are using TodaysMeet or Twitter, including you.  Instead of seeing students mentally checking out they are able to have a voice in the discussion.  When students in the center circle move to the outside circle they can continue to participate and see feedback from the outside circle while they were in the center.  The energy in the classroom is also different, instead of stale and quiet, even those tapping away on TodaysMeet or Twitter give off an air of buzzing activity.