Twitter Could Drive You Cuckoo

Lynn ZimmermannBy Lynn Zimmerman
Editor, Teacher Education

In “Study: How Twitter Is Hurting Students” on the Higher Ed Morning web site, Carin Ford gives an overview of several kinds of social networking sites and how they affect our brains.

The article includes a link to another article, “Facebook ‘Enhances Intelligence’ but Twitter ‘Diminishes It’, Claims Psychologist,” by Lucy Cockcroft, which examines the research conducted by Scottish psychologist Dr. Tracy Alloway.

Tracy AllowayAlloway contends that using Facebook helps improve working memory while Twitter, text messaging, and watching YouTube actually weaken it.

The Ford article invites readers to comment on the article and asks: Do you interact with students on Facebook? The reader responses are equally as interesting as the two articles. One response questions the validity of Alloway’s report. Others discuss pros and cons of using Twitter and Facebook in the educational setting.

These links seem to complement the various discussions that have been on ETC recently regarding the use of social networking sites in the educational setting, including Interview: Steve Cooper of TechUofA. TechUofA uses Facebook as a learning management system.