{"id":7702,"date":"2015-01-22T03:45:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T11:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=7702"},"modified":"2015-01-21T14:50:46","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T22:50:46","slug":"learning-with-twitter-chats-and-socratic-seminars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/learning-with-twitter-chats-and-socratic-seminars\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning with Twitter Chats and Socratic Seminars"},"content":{"rendered":"

My fellow librarian Jennifer Lund and I had the opportunity recently to partner with IB Theory of Knowledge<\/a> teachers Dan Byrne and Dr. James Glenn. Our instructional design challenge was to think about how we might help students process the first chapters of an advanced text, \u201cThe Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently\u2026and Why<\/em>\u201d by Dr. Richard Nisbett.<\/p>\n

Inspired by our previous efforts with Socratic circles and Twitter chat <\/a>with Emily Russell\u2019s language arts classes, we all agreed this medium would help us meet our student learning targets. After two short meetings and one extended planning session, Dan and James organized three student groups (Groups A, B, and C) that combined students from both of their sections since our learning activities would take place during a period on a \u201cblock\u201d in which both sections had the opportunity to meet together. Dan and James designed the three groups to help us facilitate inner\/outer circle groups for a Socratic seminar over the readings that would also incorporate participation through a Twitter chat. \"buffy-lib-300\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jennifer and I developed the discussion hashtag, the Twitter Chat etiquette mini-lesson, and the logistics for organizing our space in the library learning studio to accommodate such a large group.<\/p>\n

Jennifer and I also served as co-facilitators during the chat by participating in the Twitter discussion, providing technical assistance to students, and helping them with the logistics of following the chat. We also captured an archive of the Tweets with Storify<\/a> and photos of the #toknisbett<\/a> chat.<\/p>\n

The student response to the activity exceeded all of our expectations, and we were delighted that students reacted so positively to the experience in their \u201cgrows and glows\u201d reflections! Students enjoyed hearing multiple perspectives and opportunities to participate in the discussion, the Twitter stream, the organization of the 70-minute activity, and the physical space and setup for our Twitter chat\/Socratic circle discussion. They overwhelmingly loved having the opportunity for organic and free-flowing discussion; many expressed a desire to have a longer period of time for inner circle talk.<\/p>\n\n