This article uses the example of the Arab Spring to discuss how new media lowers barriers so that more voices may be heard

Krutka, Daniel G.

UNT Digital Library

S o c i a l  E d u c a t i o n86TechnologyDemocratic Twittering:Microblogging for a More Participatory Social StudiesDaniel G. KrutkaWaves of revolutionary actions beginning in late 2010 led to the downfall of dictatorial leaders who had been entrenched in the Arab world for decades. Everyday citizens used social media services to coordinate, communicate, expose, and respond to the oppressive forces that would crush pockets of resistance. In Egypt, the Facebook page “We are All Khaled Said” not only memorialized a man killed by an authoritarian police force, but provided a digital space for emotional outlet and, eventually, the coordination of rebellious activities.1 As public protests intensified on January 25, 2011, insurgents were able to synchronize collective action and publicize their cause through Twitter by using the hashtag #Jan25. The period known as the Arab Spring provides just one of many examples of how new media “have lowered the costs of production and circulation, decreasing the investment of skills and money required to meaning-fully shape our culture, and thus have paved the way for more voices to be heard.” 2If everyday citizens can utilize social media to promote change in the face of oppressive regimes then these services can certainly foster more participatory and democratic experiences for stu-dents and teachers. These opportunities should be particularly enticing in the social studies, a field concerned with democratic citizenship, but often char-acterized by top-down pedagogy. In a position statement on media literacy, the National Council for the Social Studies affirms that social studies edu-cators should cultivate within students “the awareness and abilities to critically question and create new media and technology, and the digital, democratic experiences necessary to become active participants in the shaping of democ-racy.”3 Unfortunately, instead of encour-aging teachers and students to appraise and explore prudent use of new media, many districts ban their use and some educators remain incredulous to poten-tial educational benefits.4Irrespective of institutional policy or culture, numerous educators have enlisted a range of social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Plurk) to improve their craft, and Twitter has attracted its fair share of enthusi-asts.5 In this article, I will describe two dynamic social studies lessons, concern-ing Enlightenment era philosophers and the Cuban Missile Crisis, that serve as illustrative examples of how social media, specifically Twitter, might offer more participatory and student-centered educational experiences.Twitter and its Classroom PotentialTwitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service created in 2006 that offers users a platform to read and post text messages, called “tweets,” of 140 characters or less. Microblogging can generally be characterized by the brevity of posts and the immediate interactivity with, and feedback from, “followers” as posts continuously update on a newsfeed. The inclusion of hashtags (keywords pre-ceded by the “#” symbol) within mes-sages cross-references tweets so that they are grouped by common metadata tags, which allows users to connect around common topics (e.g., #Jan25) even if they do not otherwise know, or “fol-low,” a particular user.6 The service can be accessed via the web (www.twitter.com), social media applications (e.g., Tweetdeck, HootSuite), third-party application programs (e.g., Instagram), and various tablet and mobile devices.Of course, the use of new technolo-gies necessitates careful consideration of both what the technology does and undoes. While a discussion of the lat-ter is largely beyond the scope of this article, educators should consider how and when to use Twitter (and other technologies) by evaluating its affor-dances—the experiences the technol-ogy facilitates. The immediacy, brevity, interactivity, and mobility of the medium allow for different types of communica-tion as users can benefit from the collec-tive intelligence and problem solving of groups that are less restricted by tempo-ral and geographic constraints. Unlike Facebook, where users generally only “friend” someone they know in person, it is common practice to “follow” people you do not personally know on Twitter because you share common interests.Twitter use by educators can be grouped into three general categories—communication, professional develop-ment, and class activities. Some educa-tors and administrators use Twitter to communicate in an assortment of ways with students, parents, colleagues, and other interested parties about school events or class assignments. However, the most common way that educators utilize Twitter seems to be not for student learning, but for their own professional development.7 Twitter professional Social Education 78(2), pp 86–89©2014 National Council for the Social StudiesM a r c h / A p r i l  2 0 1487development for social studies teachers generally consists of either sharing and acquiring resources from other educa-tors by asynchronously using and follow-ing the “#sschat” hashtag (among others) in tweets, or synchronously employing it to participate in the one-hour moder-ated chats on Monday nights at 7pm EST (see Figure 1). Unfortunately, the many possibilities that Twitter offers do not seem to make their way to class activi-ties where students could benefit from student-centered lessons that implicitly or explicitly model “mindful” social media use.8Anna Searcy@misssssearcyLet's begin! Q1: What games have you used (or want to use) in your social studies (or other) classes to teach skills or content? #sschat6:06 PM Dec 2, 2013Figure 1. Question from moderator during #sschat on “gaming” from December 2, 2013Class ActivitiesCreating student-centered lessons with Twitter will likely involve a learning curve for both teachers and students. Despite overgeneralizations about stu-dents being “digital natives” who under-stand how to use any new technology or media, I have consistently found that many students, even those familiar with the medium, require some form of guid-ance when using Twitter for class activi-ties. Of course, instructors using Twitter should both familiarize themselves with the medium and determine how students will access the service (e.g., school com-puters, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies) prior to introducing it to the class.9Twitter can be used with students in a variety of classes and age levels. Twitter has been used with first and second grad-ers who utilized a class account to prac-tice concise writing and share projects and class activities with parents.10 The service can also be used to connect with the authors of children’s books, classes from different cultures or countries, or even learn from other (imaginary or real) figures outside the classroom. Different types of opportunities are possible with older students who can use their own accounts. Its capacity for brevity and imme-diacy make Twitter an appropriate medium for whole class dialogue. While there is not always enough time to hear the perspectives of every stu-dent in a face-to-face class discussion, Twitter provides a suitable medium for such communications because of its brief, real-time messages. In my courses with pre-service teachers, I have often used the service for bell ringer activi-ties or end-of-class formative evalua-tions because students and I are able to read and respond to each other’s opinions in a public space at the end of class or even afterward. While tem-poral constraints of class time usually precludes me from hearing contribu-tions from every student in the class, using Twitter allows this to happen. I am able to quickly read, and respond to, specific students’ posts, including students who are unlikely to volunteer answers otherwise. Twitter’s character limit requires students to choose words carefully, and the public nature of the medium forces students to (re)consider the audience that accompanies social media. Furthermore, social media can also encourage peer-to-peer interac-tions. A study I completed with my 20 pre-service social studies teachers indicated that the use of social media, and Twitter in particular, in our weekly class enhanced students' relationships with each other and me, and also helped to blur many of the traditional lines often present in formal learning settings.11Using social media services like Twitter can not only encourage dynamic and student-centered lessons, but also provide opportunities to explicitly or implicitly teach social media literacies, including responsible digital citizen-ship. While some students participate in, or are bystanders to, cyberbullying, others use social media naively without critically thinking about the multimedia texts they encounter daily. If schools, and the social studies in particular, are to cultivate students’ growth as respon-sible “netizens” then we must expose students to a variety of potential uses and perspectives. Beyond raising digital awareness and skills, as the two following published lessons illustrate, Twitter can be used to help students learn content knowledge.Twitter Meets the EnlightenmentMassachusetts high school teacher Michael Milton utilized Twitter to develop a lesson that was student-cen-tered and extended well beyond his classroom’s walls.12 His lesson started by asking small groups of students to assume the identities of Enlightenment era philosophers, including Voltaire, Baron De Montesquieu, John Locke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The groups were instructed to reintroduce their philosopher to the world by writing blog posts that explained how their philosophers’ ideas influenced the contemporary govern-ment and culture of the United States. When students completed their posts they created Twitter accounts for their philosophers with names (see Figure 2), S o c i a l  E d u c a t i o n88creative biography information, and a link to their blog. Students then shared hyperlinks to their blog posts with classmates via Twitter using a common hashtag, and groups commented on each other’s blog posts from the perspectives of their philosophers. Students’ com-ments were expected to display a deep understanding of the Enlightenment philosophers by addressing areas of agreement and disagreement in blog comments.Mr. Milton then pushed his students’ historical thinking further while also pro-viding an authentic audience for their work by reaching out to his personal net-work of social studies teachers on Twitter using the hashtag #sschat. Milton asked his colleagues from around the country and the world to tweet contemporary questions to the philosophers in his class, such as: What would Montesquieu think about the filibuster? Would Rousseau support the U.S. Patriot Act? Students were then to write blog posts that extrap-olated their philosophers’ ideas to these new historical situations and share them with the class via the hashtag and with the teacher who tweeted the question. Students were enthusiastic to see ques-tions tweeted in from across the United States, and as far away as Australia, and Mr. Milton was pleased that the assign-ment pushed his students to research, work collaboratively, and answer com-plex historical and philosophical ques-tions for an authentic audience.A Twitter Reenactment of the Cuban Missile CrisisHistorical reenactment requires a high level of coordination among participants who must not only understand the his-torical perspectives of their characters, but also how their characters relate to other historical actors. In an effort to help students engage with the Cuban Missile Crisis more intimately, one high school teacher attempted to reenact these historical events using Twitter.13 This problem-based learning activity urged students to effectively become “practitioners of history” through a reen-actment that prompted them to analyze documents, consider perspectives, and ultimately take responsibility for their own learning. This process took place over a couple of weeks and consisted of four steps: role assignment, content cre-ation, content sequencing, and deploy-ment of tweets. The assignment began with students using a variety of web and print sources to research key historical figures from the Cuban Missile Crisis (e.g., John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro). Students then composed pro-spective tweets from the perspective of their historical characters. The succint-ness of tweets encouraged concise writ-ing so as to allow for more "flourishes" that would cover both major events and historically-supported anecdotes. After small groups wrote their messages, the entire class came together to review each other’s tweets, check for histori-cal accuracy, and finally set them in a chronological order. Over 500 mes-sages were chronologically tweeted out by students running Twitter accounts with the pictures and names of their historical characters beginning with Major Richard Heyser tweeting about preparations for his U-2 flight over Cuba and ending with McNamara and Kennedy tweeting about a diplomatic end to the crisis (see Figure 3). This experience allowed students to see the Cuban Missile Crisis re-enacted tweet-by-tweet. While the teacher felt students could have used more plan-ning time, she was largely satisfied with the lesson and stated that students both enjoyed the process while also finding it challenging. ConclusionIn both of these lessons, teachers were able to cultivate student-centered expe-riences that went well beyond memoriz-ing historical facts by actively engaging students in participatory historical activities. Students in each lesson had to think from the perspectives of histori-cal actors and actively make determi-nations about philosophical beliefs or the sequencing of events. In both cases, these lessons also pushed students to display a deeper understanding of the content being addressed than might have been the case if students had sim-ply read a textbook section or listened to a lecture of such historical figures. Social media like Twitter can be used in a multitude of ways, but the medium particularly lends itself to inclusive dia-logue and active participation.14Furthermore, teachers in each class modeled and implicitly taught a hid-den curriculum that illustrated cre-ative, mindful, and responsible ways Figure 2.M a r c h / A p r i l  2 0 1489McGeorgeBundy The Soviets want to have a trade. We take our missiles out of Turkey and then they will take theirs out of Cuba…10:00 AM Oct 27th from Tweet MasterRobMcNamara64 Just heard Radio Moscow broadcasting Khrushchev msg calling for us 2 pull missiles from Turkey. May need 2 compromise 2 achieve stability.9:00 AM Oct 27th from Tweet MasterJFK_1962 now listening in on radio Moscow and @NikitaKhrushchev speech. a little different from his letters that we have received in the past 2 days9:00 AM Oct 27th from Tweet MasterFidelCastro62 battery of SAM missiles operated by Soviets fired+brought down U2 spy plane, pilot killed. People in Cuba very calm.8:30 AM Oct 27th from Tweet MasterFidelCastro62 @NikitaKhrushchev, you should have told US that the Cubans should have been included in discussions: We are not opposed to a solution8:15 AM Oct 27th from Tweet Master(New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2013), 23-40.3.  National Council for the Social Studies, “Media Literacy: A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies,” Social Education 73, no. 4 (May/June: 2009): 187.4.  Mary Madden et al., “Teens, Social Media, and Privacy,” Pew Research Center & Berkman Center for Internet & Society, May 21, 2013, www.pew internet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2013/PIP_Teens SocialMediaandPrivacy_FINAL.pdf; Jeffrey P. Carpenter and Daniel G. Krutka, “How and Why Educators Use Twitter: An Exploratory Survey,” Journal of Research on Technology in Education (In press); While there are no widespread studies indicating social media skepticism among educators, I have repeatedly and consistently encountered such skepticism and numerous studies anecdotally rec-ognize this perception; see Lisa Chamberlin and Kay Lehmann, “Twitter in Higher Education,” in Educating Educators with Social Media, ed. Charles Wankel (Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing, 2011), 375-392.5. Carpenter and Krutka.6. Kathy A Mills and Vinesh Chandra, “Microblogging as a Literacy Practice for Educational Communities,” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 55, no. 1 (2011): 35-45.7. Carpenter and Krutka.8. Howard Rheingold, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2012).9. There are numerous searchable online text explana-tions and video tutorials that can help explain Twitter. Retired educator Jerry Blumengarten (@cybraryman1 on Twitter) has compiled an assortment of resources for educators interested in using Twitter: Jerry Blumengarten, “Twitter,” n.d., http://cybraryman.com/twitter.html.10. Jeff Kurtz, “Twittering about Learning: Using Twitter in an Elementary School Classroom,” Horace 25, no. 1 (Summer 2009): 2.11. Daniel G. Krutka, “Social Media as a Catalyst for Convergence Culture: Immersing Pre-service Social Studies Teachers in the Social Media Terrain,” in Digital Social Studies, ed. William B. Russell (Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age Publishing, 2014) 271-302.12. Krutka and Michael K. Milton, “The Enlightenment Meets Twitter: Using Social Media in the Social Studies Classroom,” Ohio Social Studies Review 50, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 22-29, http://edhd.bgsu.edu/ossr/journal/index.php/ossr/article/view/77/33.13. Victor R. Lee et al., “Retweeting History: Exploring the Intersection of Microblogging and Problem-based Learning for Historical Reenactments,” in Designing Problem-driven Instruction with Online Social Media, eds. Kay Kyeong-Ju Seo, Debra A. Pellegrino, and Chalee Engelhard (Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age Publishing, 2011), 23-40.14. Mark Sample, “A Framework for Teaching with Twitter,” The Chronicle of Higher Education— ProfHacker (blog) (August 16, 2010), http://chron icle.com/blogs/profhacker/aframework-for-teaching-with-twitter/26223.Daniel G. Krutka is an assistant professor of Cur-riculum and Instruction at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. A former high school social studies teacher, he is interested in research and practice that fosters democratic educational experiences, including participatory media. He can be reached at dankrutka@gmail.com or @dankrutka on Twitter.of using technologies like Twitter. This skill is one that has become increasingly valuable at a time when social media are emerging as a central component of our media landscape. The uses of social media platforms are varied and can help meet the needs and interests of today’s students and teachers, but much more exploration is needed. Hopefully, the examples provided here will moti-vate many more social studies teachers to investigate how new media can help prepare citizens for a world where revo-lutions can happen on Twitter. Notes1. Wael Ghonim, Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People is Greater than the People in Power (New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins, 2013).2. Katie Clinton, Henry Jenkins, and Jenna McWilliams, “New Literacies in an Age of Participatory Culture,” in Reading in a Participatory Culture: Remixing Moby Dick in the English Classroom, eds. Henry Jenkins and Wyn Kelley Figure 3.

Democratic Twittering: Microblogging for a More Participatory Social Studies

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