Over the last couple of years, Twitter has skyrocketed to the forefront of social media, and, more importantly, as a means of how many communicate. And, following in the footsteps of text messaging, and passing notes before that, Twitter is now a new way for students to communicate in the classroom.

Many teachers may find this to be a nusance and a distraction, but Professor Reynol Junco begs to differ. Junco, a professor at Lock Haven University who teaches first year seminar courses for undergraduates and graduate courses on social media in higher education, believes using Twitter can help increase student engagement and improve grades. And, last year at South By Southwest Interactive, Dr. Junco presented research that said just that.

This year, he is back with new data to show that not only does Twitter improve student engagement in college courses, but can improve students’ understanding of courses and decrease the first-year drop out rate.

“I’ve got four published studies worth of new data, plus a great deal of unpublished data, some of which I’m preparing for publication, that I’ll be presenting. There are some interesting relationships that I condense across all of these studies. Our most recent round of data collection — interviewing students who used Twitter as part of a course — has led to some rich and interesting conclusions about educational uses of social media.”

In addition to showcasing research on how Twitter can be helpful in the classroom, Dr. Junco will discuss how higher education professionals can best apply Twitter in their classroom.

And don’t think he’s leaving social media juggernaut, Facebook, out of the discussion:

“[There will] also be some information about Facebook use and how that is related to the Twitter outcomes.”

Dr. Junco’s presentation is on Sunday, March 11 from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in Classroom 203 of the AT&T Conference Hotel. You can find out more about Dr. Junco on his website, reyjunco.com, or talk to him about Twitter, on Twitter, at @reyjunco.