In many large universities where class sizes may have upwards of 100 people or more, professors and their TA’s face the continuous problem of how to engage students in discussion and participate in the class. Dr. Monica Rankin, a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas experimented with using Twitter in her history class as a means to increase participation.
According to TA Megan Malone, “It’s been really exciting because, in classes like this, you’ll have three people who talk about the discussion material, and so to actually have 30 or 40 people at the same time talking about it is really interesting,”. Students in another class at Purdue University using Twitter also agree that digital communication helps overcome “the shyness barrier”, especially in large classes.
You can read more about Twitter in the classroom at http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/twitter-classroom/. The YouTube video below showcases the opinions of the instructor and students to using Twitter.