(From a post on my blog «Thoughts on e-learning», 5th of September, 2014)
The other day I had the pleasure to engage with my 3d yr. bachelor students in a discussion around various topics related to video games on Twitter. Since I have flipped my classroom anyway I decided to take one more step and move out of the computer lab and into the cloud for a work shop on video game ethics and culture.
We kept at it for almost 3 hours going through 9 questions I put forward, ranging from ESRB and PEGI-type ratings, Aristotle, Plato and Euripides on violence in video games, harvesting Little Sisters, how women are portrayed in video games and is it possible to play Walking Dead, Mass Effect and BioShock based on virtue ethics?
And the point of it all? A part from wanting to engage them in reflections on some of the main topics of my lectures (found in the lecture blog spo300), training them in synthesis (140 characters necessitates concise formulations), I also wanted to give them points to use in their ongoing work with an individual essay. The majority of the students found this experiment interesting and rewarding. As one said it: «Cool, surely this class has been the most active as for discussing. lol.»
Can Twitter be a tool for increasing participation in class discussions?