UNL professor unlocks potential of Twitter for education

Interacting via social media on the Internet may be seen as a fun, carefree way of winding down after a long day of work or class. But blending the lines between fun and academia is the social networking website Twitter.

A Lock Haven University experiment led by Reynol Junco found that using Twitter increased the engagement of students during class. It also improved their overall semester GPAs by an average of a 0.5-point increase.

Ari Kohen, an associate political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has used Twitter for two classes.

He taught the first one in the fall of 2009.

Kohen said he started using Twitter in the summer of 2008. He first used it to socialize with his friends but now utilizes it in his professional teaching life as well.

"As I keep using it, I keep finding new ways to use it," he said.

Kohen said he came up with the idea to use Twitter as an educational tool himself, but discovered there were many professors already doing the same thing.

He said he first used Twitter with his contemporary philosophy course and found much success.

He said it increased students' participation and broke down barriers. He found students were more likely to come in and talk to him during his regular office hours and to engage during class.

He said he also tried it with his human rights class in spring of 2010, but found it slightly less effective. He said the results may have been particular to that class and plans on trying again. But he said it wasn't a failure by any means.

"I didn't get the same kind of involvement or participation over the class, but there were students who used it a lot," Kohen said.

He said he has not used Twitter with all of his classes because it is not necessarily a natural addition to every class.

"At this point, I don't want to jam technology in where it doesn't necessarily fit,"  Kohen said.

The way he incorporates Twitter into his classes is voluntary.

"That's part of why it works when it works and part of why it doesn't work when it doesn't work," Kohen said.

He said there are many professors who are using Twitter as a real-time discussion board during lectures.

"I think that's super distracting," Kohen said. "I wouldn't do it that way."

He requires only that students sign up for an account if they don't already have one and follow the class on Twitter. Involvement in the class's Twitter discussions counts towards a student's participation grade, but not participating won't hurt their grade.

A few times a week, Kohen will send out a question and students will respond and discuss. This way students don't have to wait until the next lecture to make sure they understand the material.

"I want them to be involved in my class when they're not in my class," he said. "I want the conversation to continue."

He said during class he may reference something discussed on Twitter, but other than that he wants class time to be class time. He discourages students from using Twitter during his lectures.

While Kohen doesn't necessarily use Twitter to engage students in course material for his other classes, he does make it known that he is on Twitter and that students can use Twitter to contact him.

Michael Wagner, another political science professor at UNL, is also a Twitter user.

While he doesn't use Twitter in his classes, he does use it to engage with students outside of class and he talks about its benefits during class.

"I do talk about how it's a useful tool in terms of our class discussions and for characters in our class," Wagner said.

He said he plans on requiring it for his news literacy class in the fall of 2011 since it is very relevant to the changing ways in which consumers are getting their news.

Kohen said he wants to emphasize that Twitter is not always a successful component to a class. It has to be relevant and it has to appeal to the group of students in the class. But when it works, he finds it has much benefit for his class.

"It's been getting more students involved than ordinarily would," he said.

HAILEYKONNATH@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM