A post over at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub highlights the use of Twitter in a history course at University of Texas at Dallas. In large college courses it is near impossible to have any kind of coherent discussion and most instructors are left to use a lecture-only format at all times. Plus, there is a time problem--most classes are only 50 minutes or 75 minutes long making the trade off between moderating discussion and getting through the course material via lecture one which usually favors lecture. Finally, as class size increases, so does the intimidation factor and many students who are shy or not self-confident will choose to remain silent even if they want to engage in discussion.
Use of Twitter may alleviate some, but not all, of these problems. Count me intrigued. Perhaps Twitter will be making an appearance in my Fall classes...
Posts
3 comments:
Well, well, well. A bit of reflection from our conversation on the topic. Next is the discussion on how valuable an asset the brick and mortar school will be and how soon it may become part of history.
Speaking of history, too bad so many kids in this country don't get to experience history up close and personal because their parents don't take them to explore our country's national treasures. No wonder we have a generation of zombies running around whose sense of history is the time they saw the first Shrek movie...
Anon1: I don't see us ever getting rid of the brick & mortar school. How else will children be socialized?
Anon2: my college students have no sense of history. Many people working in government have none either. It's just a sad fact.
Post a Comment