Rather than fighting the use of technology in the classroom, many teachers around the country are looking for ways to use technology to enhance the learning of their students. Rather than being a distraction to their students, these teachers are finding that the use of certain forms of technology can actually enhance the learning of students. One example is the use of social media.

“When we have class discussions, I don’t really feel the need to speak up or anything,” said one student, Justin Lansink, whose English teacher is using social media in the classroom, in a recent New York Times article. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/education/13social.html?_r=1&ref=us “When you type something down, it’s a lot easier to say what I feel.”

With the help of social media platforms such as Twitter and other microblogs, teachers from elementary all the way through to the university level are getting their students more involved in classroom discussions. In addition to providing a real-time digital stream of student comments and questions, the technique also helps prevent students from texting and using technology in non-educational ways.

While many teachers have found success with the use of social media and other forms of technology in their classrooms, critics aren’t so sure. According to these individuals, allowing these forms of technology in the classroom will only serve to distract students and is likely to lead to inappropriate comments. Nonetheless, the use of social media is slowly starting to catch on. According to one national survey, for example 2 percent of college faculty members have already used Twitter in their classes. On the other hand, nearly half of those surveyed were concerned that using Twitter in the classroom would have a negative impact on learning.

Whereas some professors are concerned that students simply use their laptops and other devices to check their email, to do shopping and to otherwise tune out of class, others feel these activities provide students with something constructive to do with their mobile devices. Some schools, on the other hand, are fully on board with the concept.

At Purdue University in Indiana, students have been able to access the university’s private backchannel system for two years now. Known as Hot Seat, the system cost the school $84,000 to create. With the system, students can post questions and comments, which can then be read on their laptops, on their smartphones or even on a large screen for the entire class to see. So far, some professors have found that the system has helped to enhance classroom discussion while getting more students to participate.

“I could never get people to speak up [before Hot Seat],” said Purdue professor Sugato Chakravarty. “Everybody’s intimidated. It’s clear to me that absent this kind of social media interaction, there are things students think about that normally they’d never say.”

Not all of Purdue’s professors are quite so enthusiastic, however, as the Hot Seat program was used in just 12 courses this past spring. Furthermore, some of the university’s faculty members are still unconvinced that students will remain focused while the system is in place.

“The last thing I want to do is to give them yet another way to distract themselves,” said Sandra Sudnore-Bousso, who is a professor of hospitality and tourism management at Purdue.

Still, most of the students who have been allowed to use this type of technology in the classroom seem to feel it has made a bid different.

“Everybody is heard in our class,” said one student whose teacher uses a backchannel program in her class to help facilitate instruction.

“It’s made me see my peers as more intelligent, seeing their thought process,” continues another student who uses the program, “and begin to understand them on a deeper level.”