KSS Professor Uses Social Media to Interact with Students

Dr. Amber Shipherd

Social media has become an essential part of today’s world.  Social networking sites like Twitter are being used on an everyday basis with 255 million monthly active users (about.twitter.com/company). Because of the popularity of sites like these among students, Dr. Amber Shipherd, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Sports Studies, decided to incorporate them into her classroom.

Twitter is an online social networking application in which you can send messages – called “tweets” – consisting of up to 140 characters. Dr. Shipherd created a Twitter account strictly for academic use in her classroom. She teaches Sport and Exercise Psychology to both undergraduate and graduate students and noted that her undergraduate students use the application more than her graduate students. Dr. Shipherd uses the account to post articles from Yahoo! News that deal with topics being discussed in class.

 She uses the Twitter postings to find out if her students understand the material even though they are not talking in the classroom.  “Some students will not speak up in class, but are willing to read a short article posted on Twitter and start talking or tweeting about it.” She also uses the Twitter account as a quick way for her students to contact her with any questions regarding class or homework. With Twitter, she is able to give her students a quick response without the hassle of emailing back and forth.

Screenshot of Dr. Shipherd's Twitter Page

Dr. Shipherd has also began posting a “Tweet of the Day” – which includes posting a question at the beginning of class. Students then have an opportunity to comment; Dr. Shipherd can respond throughout the day. “The postings are another way to connect the material with stuff going on in the media and to see how it is being applied and used,” she mentioned.  

Geddit is another application that Dr. Shipherd has been incorporating into her classroom. Geddit is a free application that can be downloaded and used on any device. The application functions the same as using clickers in a classroom. So far, Dr. Shipherd has been using the application as an assessment check, creating and posting a question related to the discussion topics. “I can get an overview of the responses and see if students are understanding the content,” said Dr. Shipherd. “But I can also see individual student responses as well, and see that maybe I need to talk with them individually.” Geddit offers additional features such as incorporation into the curriculum. Eventually, Dr. Shipherd plans to integrate many more features of Geddit into her courses.

Although not all her students have devices in which the application can be downloaded, so far the responses from students who have been able to use it have been positive. She stated: “It’s a good way to get students thinking about and interacting with the content outside of the classroom.”

For more information on using Twitter or Geddit (www.letsgeddit.com) in the classroom,

contact Dr. Amber Shipherd via email: amshipherd@eiu.edu or find her on Twitter: @docshipherd.