1. To Tweet or Not to Tweet – Twitter’s Use in Secondary Education Attendance ID 4089 – Room 1160 Matt Slocomb Social Studies West Fargo Public Schools Metro Tech Camp June 2015

2. Introductions Matt Slocomb HS – Beach, ND - 1999 Undergrad – NDSU – 2003 BS – Social Science Education and Sociology MS – College of St. Catherine – C and I – 2007 Ed Specialist (Spring 2016 – Hopefully) – NDSU – Doing research in the fall – Using Twitter in Secondary Education West Fargo HS and Sheyenne HS Teacher Strength and Conditioning Coach – WFHS – Former Football and Wrestling Advanced Sociology, Advanced Psychology and World History Teacher for 11 years Also taught ED 481 at NDSU – 2011-2014 Married (Melodie) – Children – Natalie (4) Jude (2)

3. What do you think of when you think of social media and Twitter?

4. Overview - Objective Background Overall Vision Key Lit. Review Tips Questions

5. Background – Terminology Social Media Twitter, Handle, Tweet, Chat, Hashtag, Direct Message Web 2.0 21 st Century Skills 4 C’s PLN’s

6. Background – Terminology Twitter Handle – ID – Starts with @ Example - @mrslocomb Hashtag – Sorting Tag – use # in front of whatever you want to tag as important #ndedchat #pblchat #SCOTUS #Weddingfail, #dadfail – Jimmy Fallon - Thursdays

7. Background – Twitter https://about.twitter.com/company Incorporated April 19, 2007 302 million monthly active users Many (80%) active users are on mobile 500 million Tweets sent per day

8. Background – Twitter Usage Celebrities Marketing Entertainment Public Office Holders Educators Individuals

9. Background – Twitter Usage

11. Background – My goal Castro, C., & Andrade, A. (2011). Teaching chemistry in a social learning environment: Facing drivers and barriers. ICERI, pp. 3377-3385. arXiv:1204.3164 Use Twitter to encourage engagement in curriculum and improve performance  more learning “The development of a technological basis in education is a social demand and therefore its adoption in a systemic way is no longer a matter of choice” (Castro and Andrade, 2011, p. 3377)

12. Background – My Study? In short – is Twitter an effective educational tool? Specifically… 1.Use of Twitter related to academic performance – 2014 GPA vs. 2015 GPA 2.Twitter vs Discussion boards – engagement 3.Student perceptions of Twitter – Likert Scale

13. Key Literature – Changing Dynamics in Education Holotescu & Grosseck, 2009; Zhang 2009; Walmsley 2014; Journell, Ayers & Besson, 2013 Traditional methods challenged Power shift – teachers to students Interactive learning everywhere, anytime, with virtually anyone Obstacles – Knowledge, Access, Restrictions Manifest vs. Latent Functions

14. Key Literature – Blended Learning Sancho & Vries, 2013; Mindel & Verma, 2006; Kazu & Demirkol, 2014; Smith, 2014; Swindle, Ward, Whiteside-Mansell, Bokony & Petit, 2014 Used for a while Wikis, blogs, e-portfolios Some success, some neutral findings Blended = better student perceptions Consider access and equality issues

15. Key Literature – Blended Learning

16. Key Literature – Teachers Modeling Use of Web 2.0 McLean, 2014; Herbert, 2012, Archambault et al., 2010 ED Chats PLN’s Professional Dev. “Standing on the shoulders…

17. Web 2.0 in Courses Alias et al., 2013; Balubaid, 2013; Grosseck, 2009; Ebner et al., 2010; Kassens, 2014 Limited research Information sharing “Amateurishness” Management issues

18. Twitter in Courses Improved student perceptions (Bicen, 2014) Social presence (Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2009) Efficiency (Ferguson, 2010) Reading (Williamson, 2013) Twitter vs. LMS discussions (Junco, Helberger & Loken, 2011) 2.29 vs 5.12 – 7 pt. Likert Scale – Engagement 2.28 – 2.79 – Overall GPA Kassens (2014) – Economics – Tweeting State of Union – increased content performance, perceptions

19. Main researcher – Rey Junco http://blog.reyjunco.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/11/USATodayFriendReq08182010.png “…we have research evidence to show that there is a positive relationship between student engagement in social media… and student engagement and success in the classroom and beyond.” Rey Junco

20. Methodology Use existing data from Fall 2014 students Compare to Fall 2015 students Same class, same book, same notes, same tests, same assignments, same projects, same town, same schools, same instructor, etc… Different students, different school year, website discussions versus Twitter discussions

21. Manage discussions through Tweet Deck

22. Tips I Have Use TweetDeck or another tool Select Hashtags (#)– specific, unique, not too long or confusing Post questions somewhere else (Website?) Follow key people Participate in edchats Set up lists for classes Be aware of privacy levels Rey Junco, Todd Whitaker, Jeff Zoul Eric Sheninger “Principal Twitter” (presenting at a conference in Bismarck at the end of June)

23. Concerns I Have Confidentiality? School/personal accounts? – staff and students? “Trolling” “Hijacking” Hashtags Access (Smartphones, Internet) Tech issues (not working) Usage level among students

24. Try it out Create an account Use Tweet Deck Follow some key people

25. Questions/Insights? How have you used Twitter? Have you heard of others using Twitter? What questions do you have?

26. Thank you Matt Slocomb mslocomb@west-fargo.k12.nd.us 701-356-2050 @mrslocomb www.mrslocomb.wikispaces.com