I have been an advocate for social media use for professors for many years. There are so many wonderful ways in which a professor can truly capture the overall learning atmosphere they are creating within their classroom and be able to share it with the outside world.
Plus, the opportunities and networking connections you are able to make on Twitter especially are huge. In fact, speaking from experience, Twitter has been THE platform for me over the years more than any other platform.
Which brings me to the inspiration for this post. I had a chance to be interviewed by fellow social media professor / journalist / friend Nicole Kraft a few months ago about how I use Twitter for the classroom to get real-world experiences.
I was able to talk about how I use it to provide a window into my classroom as well as use it as the ultimate networking platform for my students among other things. This resulted in an article that was published by Media Shift. Thanks Nicole for the opportunity to share my take on this important topic!
This is the current landscape we are seeing here when it comes to higher education. Yes, we still need students to have resumes and portfolios, but the way in which they are presented is slightly different. They have to be of course available in many formats and be tailored to the appropriate employer.
However, we also have to recognize the digital footprint and DNA in which captures the integrated view of a young professional today is what brands, organizations, and agencies are looking for. The complete view across all digital channels and combining this with the person they see in front of them. This is where we are right now.
How do we as professors address this? Here are some steps we can all take:
- First step is being online. Take a few minutes each day and be present on the channel. Whether it is first thing in the morning or right before class, you want to make sure to spend at least a few minutes a day dedicated to being present.
- Be present along side with your students online. If we are assigning students to follow chats on Twitter, we need to participate as well. I do this myself – I tell my students in my social media class I will not be assigning them work I am not doing myself. So, we have to show our students the behavior and activities we want them to do.
- Sharing your own experience and opportunities YOU’VE gotten from Twitter. Everyone loves stories, and what a great way to bridge the gap for why you are assigning the class to be on Twitter by sharing stories to say – this is why! I share opportunities I have gotten from previous classes to opportunities my former students have gotten during and after the class.
This actually happened during a conversation with Nicole and others on Twitter related to her story, and Mary Henige (a great professional in Communications at General Motors), tweeted this and shared Nicole’s story. This was awesome to see here!
- Practice what you preach. I tell my students I want them to be curating content relevant to the class as well as creating their own content. Okay, well, that is something we also have to do as well as professors!
- Establish your expectations. I tell my students I am not a mind reader, but I also have to be aware of the fact that I may have different expectations for what they need to do on Twitter than they do. So, you want to frame some guidelines and best practices for them when it comes to using Twitter in the classroom, like I did here for one of my classes. This sets the tone and overall feeling towards the platform for everyone.
I am personally very thankful for the opportunities Twitter has given me not only personally, but for my social media class as well. Speaking of my social media class, I will be teaching the course again this upcoming spring semester and the classtag we will be using will be #Freberg16. We would love to have you join our conversations and community!
Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
