I was reading danah boyd’s post today (hey, I’ve missed you!) where she was talking about

being chastised for multi-tasking during some conference in Italy and proceeded to explain this a generational gap. Perhaps. My 72-year-old class mate, Mark Shea may disagree with that.

I am spoiled and tend to find myself in environments where I can do all the Twitter, Web, phone etc. And at school it was encouraged and as danah says I found it quote engaging. Now, being on the other side of the fence (teaching) I also continue the non-tradition and encourage students to Twitter, comment, blog, search and email while in class. I may be a little off putting to some of my speakers, but I find it to be a great tool for learning as I can read some of the reactions and thoughts of the quieter students as well as the ones that like to speak up, and in fact I count it all as ‘participation’. Plus, I really like it when I can expand on some topic when someone takes it upon itself to post links, commentary, clarifications, etc.

During Berkman’s 10 year conference, the use of these tools in class was a hot topic of debate in one of the Digital Natives sessions. But most of the educators present admitted that pre-laptop times there were notes, whispers and hand signals not to mention the frequently used snoozing - people will always pay attention when they want to.

Here Twitter handles for the summer courses:

@kegill #uwtwtrbook

Drew Keller #com597c

@agilminer #uwmetrics

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