Students take classroom into cyber space
5 March 2013
Department of Education students on the BA Sport and Social Science programme had the opportunity to discuss cutting edge issues on human enhancement and bioethics as part of an experimental initiative using Twitter.
The initiative, led by Dr Emma Rich (@emmarich45), involved creating a seminar that took place entirely within Twitter, using a bespoke hashtag to bring together all of the content. It tested the limits of what Twitter might do to transform the classroom and open up a new space for public education.
Students brought their smart phones and tablets to class for the seminar, which was inspired by Professor Andy Miah, (@andymiah) who conducted a discussion on some of the key issues from within Twitter. Andy Miah is Chair of Ethics and Emerging Technologies and Director of the Creative Futures Institute at the University of the West of Scotland and author of ‘Genetically Modified Athletes: Biomedical Ethics, Gene Doping & Sport’.
The session took place within a unit that explores public pedagogy approaches to learning, which recognises a shift in how education takes place in the 21st century, from a reliance on formal education to a recognition of spaces like social media as important spaces of learning.
In the unit, students also study the role of public intellectuals, such as Professor Miah, who engage with the terrains of culture and new media in his academic writing.
The Twitter seminar gave students the rare opportunity to ask questions and post comments to Professor Miah through tweets and receive individual replies.
They also watched a livestream of all tweets, introducing an additional dimension to the experience.
