Twittering the Student Experience

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091116103840.htm

There was an experiment done by researchers on a campus to find out if Twitter would help education or not. Researchers set up a system where students in their first term would communicate by tweeting. This was an effective experiment and tweeting was not used for social communication, but more for peer support tool and a student-staff communication tool.

This article discusses how a University used Twitter as a communication tool for their courses. It helped students in studying for exams, setting up meetings, and bringing more clarity of the material by asking the professor questions. Students updated their status to let other students know if they needed help or that they were wiling to help others. Twitter proved to be more effective than email and phone calls because it was more immediate. It also helped students open up more to other students and be available to help each other more.

I thought this was a very interesting phenomenon. I have never used twitter myself because I have always thought of it as just a social network to know what people are doing every second of every day. I would never have thought of using Twitter as an outlet for education. The article briefly discusses how students found it useful and helpful in communicating about courses they were taking and assignments/exams.

This may be effective and helpful to students, but I wonder if it would eventually affect the way people communicate? If all campuses go to this form of communication, there will be no need for face-to-face interaction. The essence off communication will be lost- nonverbal cues, voice cues, etc. I am interested to see what other students think about this!