Tweet the teacher : using Twitter as a mechanism to increase classroom engagement

This paper presents details on a trial of the use of the Twitter social networking tool as a mechanism to engage students in the classroom, following on from a successful implementation trial last year which was reported on at ISANA 2011 (Novak & Cowling, 2011). Through the use of technology, students were able to tweet the lecturer during their class from their own device and have their queries appear on the lecture slides. Preliminary data analysis of survey data collected at the end of term shows that staff buy-in was a significant factor in the uptake of the technology in the classroom, with many students indicating that the use of the technology was not encouraged. Lessons learnt from the data analysis are presented along with theories on this lack of staff buy-in and suggestions to encourage these staff to engage with the technology.