S O C I A L M E D I A C A N E N C O U R A G E S T U D E N T S TO
C R E AT E A N D S H A R E C O N N E C T I O N S
DEFINING THE FUTURE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
LINKING LEARNING EXPERIENCES
J
ames M. Lang (2016), in
his advice column in The
Chronicle of Higher Education,
urges instructors to help students
connect course material both
with their everyday experiences as well as to topics within and
across courses and disciplines.
This process of thickening up of
connections can lead students to
formulate their own ideas and see
greater value in their work. In How Learning Works, Ambrose, Bridges,
DiPietro, Lovett, and Norman (2010:49) lend support to this approach.
They point out that the very experience of learning unfolds differently
for instructors and students due to the complexity of our knowledge or
the number and density of the connections we have developed among
particular concepts, facts, and skills.
CONNECTIONS THAT LEAD TO EXPERTISE
T
here are a number of activities instructors can adopt that will enable students to become more productive learners. Lang suggests implementing the “commonplace book,” an exercise used by early
readers and scholars to remember the various passages, thoughts, and
ideas they encountered. This activity can easily be adapted for students
enrolled in face-to-face, web-enhanced, or online courses. Several times
a week, students can be prompted to connect issues and themes from
their courses to something that happened outside of class or at home.
These connections can be explored on paper, on a course blog, or in
social media.
W
hile we might be tempted to believe that social media has
nothing to do with higher education, Jesse Stommel (2015)
persuasively argues otherwise. Stommel explains how the constraints
of Twitter, the 140-character
limit, encourage participants
to think about an idea in a way
they otherwise wouldn’t. This
makes Twitter what Stommel
calls an “emergent space.” The
boundaries and limitations of the platform encourage a kind of playfulness that is attractive to many of our students. Several times a
week, you might invite students to share connections they have observed or discovered with photos posted to Instagram or in comments posted on Facebook or Twitter. Course-specific hashtags can
allow instructors and students to stay connected to one another as
they enhance their ability to connect course material to experiences
outside the classroom. By building enthusiasm for reflective practice,
instructors can help students make the kinds of connections that will
permit them to better retain and use what they learn.
F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N T H E S E T O P I C S ,
BEGIN HERE:
• Ambrose, Susan, Michael Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marsha Lovett, & Marie Norman
(2010). How Learning Works. Jossey-Bass.
• Lang, James M. (2016, February 8). “Small Changes in Teaching:
Making Connections.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Kinzie, Susan. (2005, March 11). “Blogging Clicks with Colleges.
” The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A25305-2005Mar10.html.
• Stommel, Jesse (2016, July 16). Teaching With Twitter [audio
podcast]. http://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/teaching-withtwitter/.
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