What is a good way of sharing information with your class that is effective and not annoying? I often see news articles, video clips, or blog posts that my be of use to students, but I don't want to email the class list every single time I have something to share. Multiple emails clogging inboxes from professors cannot imaginably be on a list of student wants. Blackboard and TWEN are incredibly useful for providing students with syllabi and reading materials, but are not the best designed sites for quick posts.
Many posts on this blog have addressed the merits and drawbacks of social networking sites, such as Facebook. Many comments on those posts express suspicion at the thought of joining, for professional and privacy reasons. Some of this sentiment may stem from a desire to separate from youth culture, as these sites initially appear to be a dating forum. (In reality, one gets status updates from junior high friends about their kids' soccer games or how much they love Fridays.) There also may be misgivings about facebook-friending students, as the boundaries for what is an appropriate student/faculty interaction becomes murky.
So in pops Twitter. Or even Tumblr. Both of these are micro blogging sites that allow users to share information easily and quickly. I set up a page for my Family Law class, and whenever I see something to share, I cut and paste it to our class page. Very easy to cut and paste, and the format is a much better design than Westlaw, and best of all, I don't have to email the entire class. I told them the twitter site, which I gave a memorable name. The page is public, so the students don't have to have their own account. The most wonderful aspect is that I can name the page whatever I want. So if anyone is skeptical about having more web exposure, you can disassociate yourself from your twitter page.
Just a 20 word explanation of the post, and a link. It's wonderful. Barack Obama and Deeprak Chopra Twitter, so I figure it's legitimate.
Where is your page? I have been using Twitter in my antitrust class with mixed success. I tweet using a hashtag (#rpatf09). The hope was that students might do the same though I don't think that anyone has done so. So it works for me to push links to the students, not so far as a genuine shared means of communication.
Posted by: Randy Picker | November 20, 2009 at 02:59 PM
I use Diigo (which I generally love as a robust web bookmarking and annotation site) to save and tag items I want to share, and then post the RSS feed on my course website (and also to Twitter using Twitterfeed). Using the Diigo toolbar in Firefox makes the process very simple. And the annotation and commenting features in Diigo make it possible for others to add their own feedback on shared items (though, sadly, my students have not done this so far -- I suppose they have more important or interesting things to do with their time, like taking personality quizzes and posing drunken photos of themselves on Facebook).
Posted by: Eric Fink | November 20, 2009 at 10:36 PM