{"259661":{"#nid":"259661","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Embrace Social Media for In-Class Success","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwitter, Facebook, and Instagram \u2014 every class, instructors go head-to-head with these social media services in a battle for students\u2019 attention. But what if there was a way to make this less of a competition and more of a collaboration?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring a recent discussion hosted by the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, three Brittain Fellows from the School of Literature, Media, and Communication discussed thoughts on integrating social media into lesson plans. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBelow, Mollie Barnes, Jason Ellis, and Marty Fink share their strategies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat Would Whitman Tweet?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201c@Milton I gotta new rime for you, homeboy. Get on my ship. #MyFreshLiteraryRide\u201d \u2014 welcome to Barnes\u2019 spring 2013 English 1102 class. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTeaching Whitman\u2019s Leaves of Grass can be a challenge, because you\u2019re asking students to read a famously long poem and then figure out what it means,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I thought Twitter could be helpful.\u201d \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBarnes was looking for a way to help her students better understand the words of poet Walt Whitman. And using the concept behind Twitter (limited to 140 characters or less) seemed like a good approach. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI asked students to turn each poem they read into a tweet and encouraged them to focus on what it would sound like if they were writing them in Whitman\u2019s voice,\u201d Barnes said. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough she asked students to write tweets, they weren\u2019t actually posted to Twitter. (Barnes wanted the focus to be on writing the tweets not on making them public to those beyond class. But in the future, she would like to actually use Twitter.) Instead, the class treated a real-time Google Doc as its own faux Twitter. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriting the Brain \u2014 Social Media Style\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead of simulating Twitter, Ellis\u2019 English 1101 students used the real thing. The project \u201cWriting My Brain for Success at Georgia Tech\u201d provided students with an opportunity to experience written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal (WOVEN) communications. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI designed this assignment because there is a body of evidence that suggests that conscious reflection enforced through writing can cause subtle shifts in a person\u2019s thinking over time,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cWe can each write our brains through this practice over time. In this assignment, we are taking this a step further by expanding the project to include other modes of expression.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe goal of the project was to get students to record, reflect on, and revise their academic, professional, and life goals, he added. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFirst students were asked to tweet as many times as possible during a day about their thoughts \u2014 especially those related to goals. Next, Storify was used to curate the tweets in a way that allowed students to pull them into a document and write a sentence or two of reflection about each one. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis information was then used to create a poster and five-page essay. (For more, see Ellis\u2019 syllabus at \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/c.gatech.edu\/1jjNSAS\u0022 title=\u0022http:\/\/c.gatech.edu\/1jjNSAS\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/c.gatech.edu\/1jjNSAS\u003C\/a\u003E.)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI will assign this project again, because students come away from it with a better understanding of the rhetorical choices at play when selecting a medium for their compositions, and of the changing attitudes toward social media as a serious platform for professional communication,\u201d he added.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAutobiography of the Selfie\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMuch like Ellis, Fink\u2019s class assignments aimed to build WOVEN communications skills, but she used comics and Instagram. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis assignment encourages students to think creatively about how digital storytelling functions in contrast to print forms and how social media both constrain and expand possibilities for the sharing of life narratives,\u201d Fink said. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe course examined how comics can effectively narrate life events including experiences of dealing with challenges such as homophobia and sexism. So, Fink decided to have the students create their own comics. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEach was asked to take 50 photos via Instagram. Then the photos were used to create a handwritten comic, which was then made digital again using a range of media from Twitter to YouTube and audio-sharing platforms.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was blown away by the ways that the students took the information and translated it,\u201d Fink said. \u201cThe impressive range of students\u2019 engagement with digital media, and the creativity they demonstrated in formulating nuanced insights and critiques of the Instagram platform were energizing for me as an instructor.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwitter, Facebook, and Instagram \u2014 every class, instructors go head-to-head with these social media services in a battle for students\u2019 attention. But what if there was a way to make this less of a competition and more of a collaboration?\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram \u2014 every class, instructors go head-to-head with these social media services in a battle for students\u2019 attention."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2013-12-09 15:21:31","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:29","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-12-09T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2013-12-09T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"11202","name":"Brittain Fellows"},{"id":"13286","name":"Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning"},{"id":"37031","name":"Instagram"},{"id":"81721","name":"Jason Ellis"},{"id":"81731","name":"Marty Fink"},{"id":"81711","name":"Mollie Barnes"},{"id":"167943","name":"School of Literature Media and Communication"},{"id":"167543","name":"social media"},{"id":"314","name":"twitter"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:amelia.pavlik@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAmelia Pavlik\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}