PHILADELPHIA -- Jordan Shapiro's class last week delved into a weighty discussion of Plato's allegory of the cave and shifting perceptions of reality.

Front and center on the classroom wall behind him flashed a constantly shifting series of posts on Twitter, all under the class hashtag of #Mosaic1.

With her Nook and phone at hand, sophomore Kaylyn Christian, 20, tweeted: "Are you really happy if you live a successful life in the shadows?"

Shapiro's Temple University classroom is definitely not the norm in academia, but it could be a harbinger of the future.

While many professors at Temple and beyond ban tweeting and texting in class, Shapiro, a full-time instructor who started last year, encourages it.

Even more so -- he counts it as classroom participation. He often tweets back.

"Please tweet. Please do it," Shapiro, 35, tells students at the start of the semester.

Christian, a psychology major from Princeton, is happy to comply.

"I always like to look up at the screen," she said, "and see what others are saying, too."

Dressed in a sleek black blazer and jeans with a woolly mop of hair, Shapiro looks and acts the part of the hipster instructor. He says on his Twitter page: "Doing my best to un-educate students at Temple University."

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