The (e)Grommet: Just how do you measure if informal learning happens?
Emma
· 10 months ago
I'll certainly be interested in your findings, Glyn. I read somewhere during the last couple of weeks (can't quite remember where - it was something I skimmed) that tweets can be divided into just two types - the "daily chatter" - and then those tweets that are more indepth - essentially a short comment & link - inviting exploration. I can't quite remember what they'd seen people who just send URLs - with no reason for exploration. I'll also be interested to hear about your students' use of Twitter - I've just given a guest lecture to our first year students & mentioned Twitter (alongside other tools they might want to think about using when having to do group work). I got them for the tutorials (which were run by the regular tutors/lecturer) to use postits to record what tools ("Web2.0" & "traditional") - they use - initially organising them based on general usage & then based on usage while studying. I also got them to indicate which ones (the students were in pairs, to encourage discussion, but reduce arguing!) they saw as "collaborative" (in the way they actually use them, rather than they way they're "meant" to be used). I've now got a mound of posters in my office covered with postits.
From initial skimming, Twitter barely registers (Facebook dominates). How much of that is students in general, and how much the particular group we have (year 1, mostly male, mostly under 20 - on Computing, Computer Science, Business Info Tech, Business Info Systems, Computing & Society & a few Geographers doing Geographical Info Sys) it's hard to tell.
egrommet
· 10 months ago
Facebook is everywhere. When I asked at the start of the year, six from 87 were blogging and only one had heard of social bookmarking. Now they've had experience of all of them, even if they have decided not to use them. There's a hard core of adopters - haven't done a check but seems to be equally split between males and females,and all of these are postgrad.
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I read somewhere during the last couple of weeks (can't quite remember where - it was something I skimmed) that tweets can be divided into just two types - the "daily chatter" - and then those tweets that are more indepth - essentially a short comment & link - inviting exploration. I can't quite remember what they'd seen people who just send URLs - with no reason for exploration.
I'll also be interested to hear about your students' use of Twitter - I've just given a guest lecture to our first year students & mentioned Twitter (alongside other tools they might want to think about using when having to do group work). I got them for the tutorials (which were run by the regular tutors/lecturer) to use postits to record what tools ("Web2.0" & "traditional") - they use - initially organising them based on general usage & then based on usage while studying. I also got them to indicate which ones (the students were in pairs, to encourage discussion, but reduce arguing!) they saw as "collaborative" (in the way they actually use them, rather than they way they're "meant" to be used).
I've now got a mound of posters in my office covered with postits.
From initial skimming, Twitter barely registers (Facebook dominates). How much of that is students in general, and how much the particular group we have (year 1, mostly male, mostly under 20 - on Computing, Computer Science, Business Info Tech, Business Info Systems, Computing & Society & a few Geographers doing Geographical Info Sys) it's hard to tell.