A study released this month from Michigan State University discovered that courses that engage students on Twitter may actually see higher interaction and better grades. In the report, "Twitteracy: Tweeting as a New Literary Practice," Christine Greenhow, a Michigan State professor and co-author of the study, found that students who were actively engaging with classmates and the instructor on Twitter were more interested in the course material-and ultimately received higher grades.

“The students get more engaged because they feel it is connected to something real, that it's not just learning for the sake of learning," Greenhow said in a press release. "It feels authentic to them."

By integrating Twitter in her English courses, and through her research, Greenhow, and her collaborator, Michigan State professor Benjamin Gleason, found that students seemed to engage more with one another on Twitter than in the classroom. Greenhow and Gleason concluded in the study that students who use Twitter for academic reasons gain the ability to write succinctly, stay up to date on current research, and also benefit from connecting with academic experts directly.

"Our synthesis suggests that students and teachers might benefit when Twitter is used as a 'backchannel' for communication within or between classes," the authors wrote. "Instructors and students can use Twitter to ask and answer questions, brainstorm, focus or extend in-class discussions, help students connect, collaboratively generate information, and learn concise writing styles."

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