Twitter in the classroom and audience response

Friday I conducted my first use of an audience response system in my history class. I am using a system called Poll Everywhere, which allows me to post multiple choice or open-ended questions. I display a web page with the question and how to answer. Students can participate using Twitter, a smartphone-enabled web page, or via text message. The page updates with their answers in real time.

I am using the free version, which allows up to 40 responses per question and does not allow me to track how individuals respond. I asked two questions on the first day: how long will it take Professor Beyrer to respond to an email, and which course theme interests you the most.

I liked the interaction and my students appeared to enjoy participating. This week I plan on asking which of a set of terms they feel most comfortable explaining to another person, and I will tell them that the term with the largest number of responses will be on the list of terms to identify as part of our midterm exam. The same question will let me know which term(s) might need some additional explanation.

A couple of concerns came up for me. Not all of my students bring a cellphone or computer to class, and I do not want to disable a student just because of lack of means. That reason is why I use a service like this and avoid the use of a handheld clicker system (for my uses, I do not think the extra cost for students is worth it). I also keep the answers anonymous and in aggregate, so the fact that some do not participate is less of an issue. Since I have more than 40 students in my class, even if all of them could participate and chose to, not all would be able to. Finally, I stress that it is voluntary and tell them why I am using it (to help me get a quick assessment of their learning). I could pay for an upgrade that would allow me to track individual students, but to me the gain in data integrity is outweighed by the despair of those who do not feel able to invest in a cellphone.

Also I am a bit concerned that if I use the open-ended question I might get some inappropriate responses. For example, I thought of asking them to share a word or two describing how Congress treated President Johnson during the period known as Congressional Reconstruction. (In case you are wondering, they impeached him.) It is a great question and gets to the heart of the interpretive nature of the discipline, but it is possible that some of the budding historians in the class might not use words fit for public consumption. Poll Everywhere has a paid option that would allow me to moderate answers to open-ended questions, but I cannot see doing that in the middle of class. So I only ask multiple choice questions.

For the other uses of Twitter mentioned in the article, I would be concerned about the public nature of Twitter feeds. In that channel we leave the environment where students are able to develop their intellect guided by the caring hands of an instructor and enter a realm where they are subject to the rough grasp of uninformed and anonymous public opinion.

An instructor certainly could tweet and encourage students to follow, which might be a nice change from posting the same information within the walled garden offered by our learning management system. For student-to-student interaction, the discussion board provides a documented way for an instructor to assess how well students are doing, whether their course-related information is accurate, etc. Tweets are a bit too hasty for my taste, even if they sometimes are delicious.

I heard the following “tweetable” review of the album The Beatles on NPR:

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a really really really really really really really really really really good song. There are others.