Little o' column a little o' column b | W6Q1 | Forum

A significant point was made in the Ebner et al. which was followed up by what I thought to be an odd conclusion. Within the article, the authors state about students’ use of the microblogging site Indenti.ca, “Their activities were neither playful nor experiment oriented. They used microblogging as an alternative medium because it was mandatory. There was no evidence of more sophisticated engagement with the medium… students appeared to be ‘playing the game’ rather than using the tool for their own purposes” (2010, p. 97). This was followed by, “the successful use of microblogging and the increasing value that results for students and teachers from the use of microblogging is substantial…microblogging has great potential for the future by expanding teaching and learning beyond the classroom” (2010, p. 99). This seems to pose two problems 1) the authors seem to vastly overstate what their data show relative to the students’ actual experience 2) these excerpts clearly show that students’ interest does not lay with the medium so learning beyond the classroom would be significantly hindered as students were only playing the mandatory game.

On the other hand, authors made credible arguments for microblogging. (2011)In the Ebner et al. piece the authors did point out the interesting fact that microblogs and associated social network sites can easily facilitate process-oriented learning. The small nudges an instructor could give to get a student back on course could help make learning seamless and attentive. From the other end of the spectrum, students were able to critique the course in an effort to nudge the course in a more cooperative manner through their frustrations and perspectives (Elavsky et al., 2011, p. 11).