Here is my original blog post #4.

Through re-reading my post #4, I want to add some new points about whether K-12 students are suitable for using Twitter as an educational tool.

Revised post:

A study shows that Twitter as a social media can increase student’s self-study ability, which is newly published this year (Owens, 2020). Owens (2020) states that social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, enlarges the learning scale from local to global, connecting learners together. Twitter allows students to collaborate with other students on a global scale. Although it is inevitable to face fake news on the network, which is risky, educators are likely to focus on the fast-paced life around the world. As I mentioned in the original post, a fast-paced study is not suitable for learning; however, more instructional staff consider that expanding social media usage as Twitter in education aims to keep pacing on the “fast-changing” world (Owens, 2020). Twitter’s primary characteristic is dynamic, which is convenient for students to post ideas online continuously, and instructors can answer any questions and correct miss understandings “in-real” time or asynchronously (Luo et al. 2019).

In the original blog, I concluded several ways of using Twitter support an OER (Open Educational Resources)-enabled pedagogy. I will address more details in the following. OER is associated with the Open Pedagogy (Wiley & Hilton III, 2018). It is a novel theory in the educational area. Comparing with traditional education, Open Pedagogy focuses more on learner’s interest in a learning context and learning progression, treating students in the same learning ability level (Wiley & Hilton III, 2018). OER (e.g., videos, blogs) refers to utilize online educational materials and serve it to target users. Materials contain copyright licenses, which prevents students from copying and duplicating artifacts illegally. Students under the permission could implement 5R activities: retain (e.g., download, store), reuse, revise (e.g., translate to another language), remix (e.g., create new content based on given context), and redistribute (e.g., share copy).

Speaking about the Open Pedagogy and OER, a new phase appears in the article: renewable assignment. A renewable assignment is different from the traditional assignment (also called disposable assignments). Disposable assignments describe a situation that a student creates an assignment, a professor gives grade and comment, and then students throw it in a recycle bin or leave it (Wiley & Hilton III, 2018). This action wastes learning outcomes, whereas renewable assignments recycle these assignments, store them online as useful learning material, and benefit other students to study and introduce. Renewable assignments need to satisfy four criteria: “student creates artifacts, the artifact has value beyond supporting its creator’s learning, the artifact is made public, and the artifact is openly licensed” (Wiley & Hilton III, 2018). Correct me if my opinion is wrong; from my perspective, students create micro-blogs under a specific educational topic on Twitter can be categorized into renewable assignments. Other students can comment and cite the idea in their blogs, which helps gain knowledge through self-studying. Tang & Hew (2017) state that Twitter can facilitate learner and learner interaction positively. It also supports learning outcomes by “pushing” students to engage in open activities (e.g., hosting a conversation, publishing a useful video).

Besides, Wiley & Hilton III (2018) provide few examples of utilizing OER, which may help the reader understand Open pedagogy and OER better. I will address two examples: a Digital Photography course and a Social Psychology class. Students attend the digital Photography course are encouraged to submit their best artifacts, and thus, instructors will collect and use these photos for future learning materials. An interesting phenome is that after completing these actions, the average grade of the class is higher than before. In a Social Psychology class, students are encouraged to create questions about learning resources to strengthen their knowledge. Instructors will use these questions for future students, as a typical example of OER. These two examples fully present the advantages of using OER.

In conclusion, OER allows students to choose a learning context based on their interests, which adds to learning motivations. Although more spending on OER may be a challenge to the school financial burden, OER’s advantages should be considered before purchasing paper-copy textbooks. Moreover, appropriately use Twitter as a support tool for OER can increase K-12 student’s learning interest and learning outcome.

 

Reference:

Luo, T., Shah, S. J., & Cromptom, H. (2019). Using Twitter to Support Reflective Learning in an Asynchronous Online Course. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 35(3). doi:10.14742/ajet.4124

Owens, T. (2020). The Influence of Twitter Educational Opinion Leaders on K-12 Classrooms (Doctoral dissertation, Lindenwood University).

Tang, Y., & Hew, K. F. (2017). Using Twitter for education: Beneficial or simply a waste of time? Computers & Education, 106, 97-118. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.12.004

Wiley, D., & Hilton III, J. L. (2018). Defining OER-Enabled Pedagogy. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i4.3601