Twitter for Spaced Practice

Yesterday I wrote about an article I reviewed on spaced practice. This next article review is about using a social media tool like Twitter for delivering and for developing spaced practice content. 

The journal article "Utilizing Twitter for Concept Learning " offers a clear and concise overview of a study of whether or not Twitter can be used as a spaced learning reinforcement tool for college-level classes.

Buzzelli et al. (2016) describe the rationale for the experiment as a "focus on training of a particular conceptual entity within one training session using repeated training stimuli" (p. 1417). Concept understanding via spaced practice rather than blocked learning is a common study, as shown by studies like McDaniel et al. (2013). The authors state that their focus is to determine if sending tweets with examples and non-examples related to predetermined major concepts would assist students in effectively learning concepts through distributed practice" (p. 65). The research design and description are easy to follow and understand by the layperson. The Buzzelli et al. (2016) study shows that Twitter practice is not superior to more traditional methods.

A few of the features that Buzzelli et al. (2016) identify within their study that make Twitter ideal for spaced practice include Twitter's ubiquitousness among the students in the study, the fact that there is the ability for the user "to create a succinct, 140-character or word string" (p. 66), a closed environment for testing and the ability to use hashtags for categorizing content. In addition, learners and teachers were able to create content. Teachers distributed their content "three times per day per concept" (Buzzelli et al., 2016, p. 67). Buzzelli et al. (2016) tested Twitter subjects versus traditional subjects, then switched groups to test again.

The study results show that using Twitter for spaced practice was equal to traditional review methods used as a comparison; a review worksheet. In addition, means on tests provided to both the control group who used traditional study methods and the experimental group, who used spaced practice via Twitter, were close to equal. The less than favorable results for Twitter practice Buzzelli et al. (2016) admit could be because so few students were involved in the study and the fact that when asked how often The study subjects used Twitter, the results showed that the majority of the study subjects Tweeted via Twitter only once monthly or never. 

Using spaced practice to help learners understand concepts, especially via user-initiated spaced practice sessions, is novel, but utilizing technology that is easy for learners to use and access has historical antecedents in several studies in adult education, including Brown's (1932) work where he discusses the need for adult learning content to be taken during off-hours and "be somewhat continuous and consecutive" (p. 465). Utilizing Twitter allows learners to create their own spaced practice tests at times of their convenience and access the content via hashtags that meet the standards of Brown's principles. Additionally, allowing students to create class test questions and interact with other classmates enables them to establish and forward their learning and develop and forward their zone of proximal development (ZPD). This ZPD, according to Boettcher and Conrad (2016), is "the space between what students can do independently and what they can do successful with the help or guides of a person who might be an expert or simple a more capable peer" (p. 36). 

The study followed a mixed-methods paradigm using both qualitative and qualitative data to yield results. In terms of the qualitative data, ensuring that the data is trustworthy and credible are two of the characteristics that Freeman et al. (2007) provide as a critical part of the validity of qualitative inquiry. In the Discussion section, Buzzelli et al. (2016) provide this validity by admitting that the sample size for both groups was not large enough to provide more relevant results. This admission offers a level of validity and honesty to the study and provides a framework for further studies. 

References

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R.-M. (2016). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Brown, F. J. (1932). Basic principles underlying adult education. The Journal of Educational Sociology, 5(8), 463–470.

Buzzelli, A., Holdan, E. G., Rota, D., & McCarthy, J. (2016). Utilizing Twitter for concept learning. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education: An Official Publication of the Information Resources Management Association, 12(1), 64–76. 

Freeman, M., deMarrais, K., Preissle, J., Roulston, K., & St. Pierre, E. A. (2007). Standards of evidence in qualitative research: An incitement to discourse. Educational Researcher, 36(1), 25-32.  

McDaniel, M. A., Fadler, C. L., & Pashler, H. (2013). Effects of spaced versus massed training in function learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(5), 1417–1432.