[OPE] tweet economics

I went to a faculty seminar yesterday on applying new communications
technologies to teaching economics. Most of the time was spent on
"Blackboard" but a sociology professor tried to make the case that
tweeting is an effective teaching tool. I wasn't convinced. No doubt,
Twitter is very trendy right now and requiring that students tweet
might even be an activity that many of them would enjoy. But, my
question is - given the maximum amount of characters allowed in a
tweet - what sort of questions could you ask and what sort of replies
could you expect? I don't like the idea of "sound bite economics".
It seems to me to be the opposite direction which progressive education
should go. Instead of asking short questions which can be answered in
only a few words, we should be encouraging students to think critically
about political economy and that can't be done with just a few words
or numbers.
 
Do any of you use Twitter as a teaching tool? If so, what has your
experience been to date? Do any of you use it as a means of communication
among colleagues? If so, has it been a successful experience?
 
In solidarity, Jerry
 
PS: there is also a somewhat separate, but important question: how
would tweeting affect one's workload? I think faculty need to pay more
attention to the possible consequences on the hours of work of new
teaching technologies._______________________________________________
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Received on Sat May 30 07:31:22 2009