A few weeks ago, I sat down for an interview with Toledo’s PBS affiliate (WGTE) about my classroom experiences with Facebook and Twitter. “Why do I use the social networking media,” the interviewer asked. “How do students take to it, and will I continue to use it in the future?” The short answers are as follows: I use it to connect with students and spark discussion; students are not as open to the media as I thought they would be; and yes, I plan to use both Facebook and Twitter next semester. You can see the full interview below or on WGTE’s site (my part begins about 1:35m in). And, yes, I’m from the South (i.e., the accent).

While I’ve always employed technology in/outside my classes–e.g., course websites, WebCT/Blackboard, online office hours via AOL, Yahoo, and MSN instant messaging–this was my first semester to add Facebook and Twitter to the mix.

Over the summer I created a “professional” Facebook Page, not to be confused with the “personal” Facebook Profile, which I also have. What’s great about the Page is that it performs just like a Profile EXCEPT that its administrator and “fans” (like “friends”) connect only via that page. In other words–and this seems particularly useful for professors–I cannot see the personal profiles, pictures, and status updates of my students/”fans,” and they cannot see mine. Seriously, what professor wants to know THAT much about the day-to-day activities of his/her students and vice versa? You can reach my Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/drkellimarshall.

Next, Twitter. I joined Twitter this summer, first because Ashton Kutcher told me to (well, why did you join?!) and second, because I had been researching it. I had watched Monica Rankin’s inspiring Twitter Experiment and had read through Dave Parry’s step-by-step guide Twitter for Academia. Incidentally, both of these professors teach at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I received my Ph.D; so I felt compelled to give this latest of form of New Media a whirl.

And I did. I even included a blurb on my syllabus, encouraging students to create their own Twitter accounts, to follow @Intro2Film, and (gasp!) to bring their cell phones to class. It went something like this:

This semester, our class will employ Twitter as one means of communication. Signing up for the service is NOT mandatory, but please keep in mind that Twitter will be a valuable communication tool for FILM 1310. Its “lightweight” format–expressing an idea in 140 characters or fewer–is perfect for course updates/reminders, in- and out-of-class discussions (you might be asked to bring your cell phone to class!), and even possible exam questions (yes, possible exam questions). In addition, Twitter allows you to “follow” film stars/directors, some of whom we might discuss over the course of the semester (e.g., Kevin Spacey, Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow).

Since cell phones are attached to the hands of college students like an extra appendage, I assumed I’d have no problem incorporating Twitter in the classroom, particularly within a large lecture-based class of 125 students. “Surely, they’d want to tweet during a movie,” I thought. “Surely, they’d be whip out those phones and respond as though ready for a duel,” I believed. But no, that’s not how it went at all.

This was the original plan. Before the film screenings, I’d tweet 4-5 questions on the day’s material, like this one on the representation of gender in Silence of the Lambs:

How is Clarice punished in SOTL for her independent nature? Or is she? Consider her final scene w/ Lector perhaps.

As they watched the film, the students were supposed to react to my tweet: right then, right there, in the dark, in the classroom. I intended it all to be very “in the moment” as they say, the students thinking critically about the moving pictures as they watched. But surprisingly, over the course of the entire semester, I may have received 2 real-time responses/tweets in my large class and perhaps 20 in my smaller film classes.

So what’s up with this? Why are students, some of whom consistently sneak their phones under their desks to text during class when they’re NOT supposed to (yeah, we see you, students!), so unwilling to text when they are actually encouraged to? An article like “Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens” suggests that teens and college students have no use for Twitter because they are already connected; “their lives [already] tend to revolve around their friends.” Additionally, some claim that the teens (particularly those under 18) “want to hide what they are doing.”

But using this particular form of New Media in a classroom has little to do with maintaining friends or concealing one’s activities from one’s parents. So here are some other theories as to why my experiment didn’t take off this time around:

• My directions weren’t thorough enough? (Two weeks before the semester began, I emailed all students directions on the use of Twitter, e.g., how to create an account, how to send a tweet, etc. Maybe I should have been more specific…)
• Students are too shy to tweet in front of others? (Honestly, I assumed that for some students, tweeting in front of 120+ other students would be easier than speaking aloud. Maybe not.)
• Students have limited text-messaging plans and do not want to “waste” their texts on a class?
• Students don’t have a cell phone? (True in some cases, but very few, I imagine.)
• Students are conditioned to think that using a phone is class is bad, wrong, disrespectful; so they feel weird about doing so?

And with that, I’ll quote Geoffrey Rush’s character from Shakespeare in Love, “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.” At this point, it is indeed a mystery why my students haven’t taken to Twitter. (Facebook, however, is another story; they’re much more willing to interact with me there.) Nonetheless, I’ll press on and try it all again with my students this spring. Perhaps in May 2010 I’ll have a different story to tell…

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