Tweeting on Twitter could promote Student Learning

(Best Syndication News) - A study from Michigan State University suggests that Twitter could be used to help promote student learning. Twitter is a social networking website that limits the posts to 140-characters or less. Twitter has become notably popular for fans to keep up with their favorite celebrity, sports team, and for businesses to offer promotions.

Christine Greenhow, assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, explains her observations in "Twitteracy: Tweeting as a New Literary Practice," which was published in the journal Educational Forum.

The investigation found that students who “tweet” on Twitter as part of their instruction were more interested in the course content. The students were more involved with their teacher and other students, and they received higher grades.

Greenhow reported that US teen Twitter use has doubled in under two years. Everyday there are over 175 million tweets sent. Twitter is changing the way people communicate.

Greenhow looked at other studies and found that Twitter helped students and instructors work on projects together, including sharing of ideas, collaborating, brainstorming, and creating the project.

Twitter benefited students in other ways. The 140-character limitation taught students to write more concisely. Also, the students were able to conduct up-to-the-minute research by being able to communicate with the authors instantaneously.

By: Julie Marcus
Science and Technology Writer

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