The Twitter Experiment – By Dr. Monica Rankin

After a couple of days off from my regular blogging activities, as I went on a business trip to Madrid for a couple of days end of last week to share some more thoughts and insights on social software adoption at an internal event, I am now back once more. Yes, I am back home and it is time for me to resume blogging again.

This time around with something really exciting and truly innovative that has been going on in my mind the entire day, ever since I watched a specific YouTube video that I bumped into from an earlier tweet from the always insightful Mike Wesch referencing an experiment done by Dr. Monica Rankin, Professor of History (The University of Texas at Dallas School of Arts and Humanities), which she then describes more thoroughly at this specific Web site.

I must say that while I was watching through the video I just couldn’t help remembering a blog post I put together a few days back referencing a similar revolutionary change that was starting to take shape in the Learning and Education field. Remember Learning to Change – Changing to Learn? Then you must watch The Twitter Experiment by Dr. Monica Rankin.

In that video clip of a little bit over five minutes she gets to describe how she has been running, very successfully, too!, an experiment by which she uses Twitter with her students to help improve the overall flow of not only the classroom itself, but the interactions, and conversations, of the various students, amongst themselves and also with her. Some pretty fascinating stuff, for sure! Gems like this one are just too precious not to spread them around elsewhere: "Yes, it’s going to be messy. But messy doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be bad".

Then I would suggest you go and read "Some general comments on the "Twitter Experiment"" to find out some more around her conclusions on how effective microsharing in the classroom, i.e. making use of Twitter, has been for her and for her students. Plenty of amazing stuff in there as well, to say the least!

As a teaser, in that specific document Monica gets to detail how the experiment went by providing a short introduction; then talking about the class itself; followed by the plan and set-up; right after that sharing some more insights on the "discussions", their "best practices" to then wrap up with the limitations and strengths of the overall experiment. Very enlightening!

I am not going to spoil the video clip and the rest of the contents from Monica’s detailed document sharing her experiences, but I can certainly tell you that I wish I would have had such an opportunity when I was studying at the University of Salamanca a few years ago, because I’m sure it would have changed my, back then, perspective on the impact of technology in my day to day learning activities. Yes, such is the breath-taking impact of "The Twitter Experiment" by Dr. Monica Rankin that you are about to watch next …

I am sure that, after watching the video and reading through the document, there will be one single thought going through your head: if Dr. Monica Rankin has proved that making use of Twitter can be very helpful to improve the overall outcome of a classroom, why do some businesses out there still object towards fully embracing the concept of microsharing. Isn’t this enough proof, once again, that it works? You tell me …

(Although I think you already know my answer …)

Tags: Microsharing, Microblogging, Mike Wesch, Monica Rankin, University of Texas, School of Arts, Humanities, History, Learning to Change, Changing to Learn, Twitter Experiment, Messy, Orderly Chaos, University of Salamanca, Teaching, Learning 2.0, Education, Learning Activities, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, YouTube, Twitter