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OMG! #jenclass Spawns #loweclass

7/20/2012

12 Comments

 
Picture
Host Vicki Krueger (left) and instructor Jen Lee Reeves present useful tips during the NewsU webinar held in May.
I learned something while witnessing a great News University webinar a few weeks ago, "Social Media in the Classroom," that will hopefully make things better for me and my students – especially for their live tweeting assignments and our interaction on Twitter and Facebook. 

Led by the course's instructor, Jen Lee Reeves, and hosted by NewsU director Vicki Krueger, the webinar focused on how social media can enhance learning for students, why it's worth taking the risk in the classroom and examples that have worked. Reeves, the interactive director at KOMU-TV and komu.com, was amazing. Just learning about her awesome website at http://www.jenleereeves.com was worth the cost and 75 minutes at the computer.

Reeves also teaches new media as an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Midway through the session she said she focuses much of her interaction with students using the hashtag #jenclass. She has a Tumblr account and a Facebook group for current and former students, both identified by #jenclass. She also uses it for hashtag conversations with her students on Twitter, and expects it to happen during class time.

OMG! Why didn't I think of #loweclass before? I maintained a mandatory Facebook group for each of my courses last year at Marquette: Digital Journalism I (JOUR 1100), Digital Journalism II (JOUR 1550) and MU JOUR 4953 (Elections). Each time I wrote a new blog post meant having to put it into each group. This risked annoying those students who were in two or three of the groups, though I didn't want to neglect those who were only in one. Now, having a single #loweclass Facebook group means one post reaches all of my current and former students.

The new hashtag will have even greater impact for us on Twitter. My students regularly live tweet campus events and must include a class hashtag within each tweet as part of a given assignment. Using #JOUR1100 #JOUR1550 or #JOUR4953 isn't too bad if you're only using one of them. But that's 29 characters – remember, Twitter allows only 140 per tweet – whenever I want to get everyone's attention in all three classes during an assignment. The same applies when I want to share a weblink to a nicely written story or a link to a webpage offering nice job-hunting tips.

Using #loweclass will instead keep all three classes in the same hashtag conversation. And for the biggest live-tweeting opportunities, when our collective efforts causes an event hashtag to trend on Twitter, well, having #loweclass in each tweet means that my hashtag should like trend as well. That would not be a bad thing – would it?

I also require my students after every class to tweet about something they learned that day. Again, they must use their class hashtag, which means I have to look at three different hashtags – way too cumbersome and complicated – and the students only follow their respective conversation. Using #loweclass instead produces only one conversation and would help me make sure everyone's in it; yes, it will even help me take attendance. Better still, students and educators whom I can encounter nationwide would hopefully participate, too. Yes, the possibilities abound, including having my students live tweet when we have guest speakers in the new #loweclass. I'm excited!
12 Comments
Jen Lee Reeves link
7/20/2012 02:12:03 pm

I'm excited to see how this goes. I'm fortunate to only manage one class. So I can't wait to see how one hashtag with three courses goes for you and your students! Good luck and have fun!

Reply
Michael LoCicero
8/29/2012 01:36:20 pm

#LoweClass is clever. I hope you don't mind taking a shot at yourself every time we tweet it, however ;). You're a high class man, Mr. Lowe.

Reply
Patrick Leary
8/29/2012 02:41:54 pm

#LoweClass is a good solution to splitting all of your students. Now the event hashtag and the class hashtag will trend!

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Chris Chavez
8/29/2012 03:18:40 pm

#LoweClass is going to take a little getting used to, but I'm down with it. I can only imagine the smile on your face once this trends for the first time.

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Ryan Ellerbusch
8/30/2012 03:18:55 am

#LoweClass is a very short and clever hashtag to keep all of our tweets about campus events or what we learned in journalism classes today very organized. I like the idea and improvement. Here's now to 130 more characters of creative class tweets :)

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Stephanie Graham
9/2/2012 06:10:32 am

Using Twitter for class is one of the greatest things about being in the College of Communication. I remember seeing my timeline filled with #JOUR1550 tweets last semester so I'm pretty excited to join in the live tweeting fun myself. Nice move combining them all together into #loweclass.

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Matt Barbato
9/3/2012 12:18:14 pm

In a world where people demand their news right when it happens, social media and especially Twitter will become one of the best ways to share news. For instance, Maurice Jones-Drew, running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars, ended his offseason hold out and will return to the team. This is very important news for Jaguars fans and fantasy football owners. Rather than waiting a couple of hours or even a day for the newspaper article to come out, Twitter allows us to send that news a minute after it happens.

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Caitlin Miller
9/4/2012 05:54:55 am

I love the idea of using social media in class. Last year I remember seeing all of the #JOUR1100 tweets and was reminded of what we did in class. Now #loweclass will allow other people to see what is happening in all of your classes, not just a particular one.

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David Tukesbrey
9/4/2012 11:40:20 am

Interested to see how #LoweClass does. But I'm also interested to see how it can be used as tool to help other students out. I almost feel like some students will just tweet once or twice (just to fulfill the requirement) and then be done with it. It's going to be interesting to see the balance there.

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Jacob Born
9/4/2012 03:07:27 pm

Before Twitter, I never really got the point of hash tagging. But now I realize it can either be for humorous ideas, or for actually trying to build a community of tweeters to tweet the same ideas. I have recently learned just how powerful a hashtag can be, after seeing the power of #nolockout.

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Casby Bias
9/4/2012 11:30:53 pm

Ah, Facebook: super confusing at times. Just last week I ended up creating my first event on the website and asked students to help start an NAACP chapter at Marquette. The process took longer than I thought it was going to: mostly because I had no idea what I was doing. I found out (or at least I think I did) at the last minute how to get a whole chunk of people to be invited to an event without clicking each name under your friends tab. Could have been a bit useful earlier.

Reply
Steven Chappell link
11/5/2012 05:54:56 am

Why didn't I think of that? This is one great idea I plan to borrow! Thanks!

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    My journalism DNA remains strong as I learn and teach new ways to tell and present stories, especially via digital and social media. This blog is where I share what happens in my classroom and my life and, from time to time, offer my views on current events. I appreciate your feedback – either as comments herein or in an email to herbert.lowe [at] marquette [dot] edu.

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