A recent “click-bait” story out of the Washington Post describes a study in Italy that explores using Twitter to study a novel. The study, done at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, split students into two groups: one group used more standard classroom approaches to reading and understanding a novel while the other group used Twitter to learn about the book. The results showed that the students on who studied on Twitter struggled in retention and understanding of the novel.
Does this prove that Twitter is, in fact, “eroding our intelligence” as the WaPo headline decries? Do studies like this help or hurt the cause of those trying to fight against Fake News and social media’s shortcomings? Can using Twitter be a positive in certain contexts, lesson plans, and content domains?
We talk about all of this and more on our latest episode. Tune in and feel free to tweet about it!