Microblogging on Twitter: Social Networking in the Italian Classroom

Enza Antenos-ConfortiMontclair State University

Follow me @iVenus (my PLN); @profeac

Twitter in L2 Education?

Can social networking be transformed to educational networking?

Proposed by academHacK(David Parry)

Social Networking as Educational Networking

Twitter is computer-mediated communication that engages students in:

communicationcollaboration a constructivist learning environment

Digital Conversation “Twitter-Style”

Where?When?Who?

Mobile & Web-based

Synchronous & Asynchronous

Openness & M

ultiple Publics

Building a language community…

…that includes native speakers

Students will…engage in synchronous & asynchronous CMC

engage in individual & community language use

The Learning Potential of Twitter

Additional advantage…

Students can…belong to the classroom & beyond…into the target language culture

Expectations: The SyllabusOn Twitter each week, I expect you to do two things: 1. post short messages on your Twitter.com account twice a week (on 2 of the 3 weekdays

we do not have class--Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday). You will be limited to 140 characters in total, including spaces & punctuation. This is so you can practice

writing about your routine within text limitations. 2. to comment on someone else's tweet (entry on Twitter) once a week.

Example:Let's say PINCO's tweet says: Sabato ho visto il film “I am legend”

You can reply to PINCO as follows: @PINCO voglio vederlo anch'io. Ti è piaciuto?

You must comment to only one person per week to receive full credit. Once you get used to the reply feature, it becomes second nature.

Findings: Twitter as Social Media

Did not like it

Neutral

Liked it

Loved it

2

9

8

3

3

11

2

Findings: Tweet Updates

Tweets69%

Replies31%

Findings: Distribution of Replies

Ital-ians 14%

Stu-dents

in other sec-tions 15%

Classmates 46%

Teacher/Researcher 25%

Findings: Tweets are…

self-perpetuatinggenerativeauthentic

Findings: Tweet Topics

Findings: Twitterers…

interpret inputproduce output engage in conversations Good morning, is it cold?

What’s the weather like?

Good morning, yesterday makes* beautiful. Today is cold. What’s the weather like there?

Sorry for the late (reply)! Here it’s humid and there is fog this evening.

Unexpected Findings 1Good language practiceIncreased appreciation for language and cultureExperiential learning

Unexpected Findings 2

Unexpected Findings FA08

Introduced to Twitter in FA08Tweeted in Italian for 7 months, after course endedNow a bilingual twitterer

Further Investigations:E-twinning in L2 (SP09)

Further Investigations: The Twitter Backchannel

in the L2 Classroom (FA09)

Links/Images

Twitter in italianohttp://blog.twitter.com/2009/12/ed-ecco-litaliano.html

Twitter bird and bookshttp://www.distance-education.org/Articles/Top-75-College-Education-Tweets-133.html

Elements of Digital Conversationhttp://www.mikearauz.com/2009/04/elements-of-digital-conversation.html

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live (Time Magazine, June 2009) http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html

Elements of Digital Conversationhttp://www.mikearauz.com/2009/04/elements-of-digital-conversation.html

Twitter bird and book: http://www.distance-education.org/Articles/Top-75-College-Education-Tweets-133.html

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live (Time Magazine, June 2009) http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html

Grazie! Thank you!

Enza Antenos-Conforti, PhDDepartment of Spanish & Italian

Montclair State Universityantenosconfe@mail.montclair.edu