Twitter is one of the social networking applications for the Internet - you have the ability to post status updates from mobile devices, etc. Before Facebook and Myspace had mobile applications, this was THE mobile social network. According to Wikipedia, it's still the third most common social networking application, ahead of sites like Friendster and HI5, and behind only Facebook and Myspace.
One of the issues I find in the classroom sometimes is poor etiquette. For example, there are times I am in the middle of teaching a lesson, and I see a student texting or doing something on their phone. It becomes distracting, and it is a little frustrating to deal with. As such, it causes me to lose focus, and therefore, affects the learning environment for the entire class.
I (and many professors) feel like it is rude when students do that ... and that the class isn't important to them. This is why this article was something I can relate to:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3990853
Basically, a player from the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, Charlie Villanueva, updated his status on Twitter during halftime of a game. His coach, Scott Skiles, got pretty upset about it, and, much like some students may think, he didn't think it was a big deal. The coach, on the other hand, felt like it showed a lack of focus on the game by the forward.
On some level I can relate with Coach Skiles.
3 comments:
I consider myself somewhat technically savvy and I think you would agree. Texting, blogging, email, and chat I 'get' the purpose. Like you, I believe students should do it on their own time and not during class.
That being said, I don't 'get' twitter. Have we become delusional to the point that we feel our actions require updates by the minute?!?! Can we be that narcissistic? And who really cares?
Most of what I have read on twitter used to be hand written in those things with pages called diaries. Personal thoughts meant to be kept to yourself and only published IF you became or did something famous! In my mind "just brushed my teeth an flossed -mint flavored" is not cutting it! Then again, maybe it's just me.
David, I'd say you are more than savvy...! I don't want to come across as inflexible - my pocket vibrates sometimes, and there is that urge to answer it, but I don't. What I find interesting is that it seems like the higher level the class is at, the less you see this behavior. A good friend is a faculty member in developmental reading, and she's recounted some horror stories that go beyond simple texting during class, so I suppose I should be thankful on some level that I don't have to deal with it as much as others do.
PS - don't knock mint flavored floss. Them's fightin' words.
Whenever someone is texting in your class throw an eraser. It would catch their attention and hopefully they won't do it anymore or at the least they can twitter about.
Twitting:
Prof. Cameron just threw a eraser at me. Caught me in the eye.
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