Teaching by Twitter...a view on mLearning - A conversation with Andrew Smith
Channel: Center for Online Innovation in Learning
Date: 15/12/2014

The Cisco Networking module team at the Open University has been experimenting with the inclusion of social media tools as a method of extending learning beyond VLE content. The rationale for the experiment was to leverage the free resources available within the social media domain with the intention of adding a ‘knowledge nugget’ and ‘aide memoir’ dimension to the teaching content; to enhance retention as well as use the interactive resources of social media to bring the teaching team closer to the student experience in an otherwise traditional large scale blended distance-learning community.

The project, which completed a technological test run during the Spring/Summer of 2013, ran with the internal moniker of ‘teaching by twitter’, armed with a comma separated variable file and hootsuite. A range of platforms, including LinkedIN, RSS, Facebook, Blogging and Google+, were all leveraged to both teach students and expose this learning to a wider community and the experiment included the active participation of over 400 students.

During this COIL Conversation, Andrew Smith, Lecturer in Networking at The Open University (UK), describes the ongoing work related to this project and implications for the future of Higher Education.

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