Blog #1
According to their website, “Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations. At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called Tweets. Each Tweet is 140 characters in length ... Connected to each Tweet is a rich details pane that provides additional information, deeper context and embedded media.”
According to their website, “Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations. At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called Tweets. Each Tweet is 140 characters in length ... Connected to each Tweet is a rich details pane that provides additional information, deeper context and embedded media.”
Twitter can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom. For example, during my student teaching semester, twitter was used with my technology course in order for us to reflect (twice a week) on our experiences in the classroom, ask questions, share interesting information, etc. When first asked to use twitter, I was very hesitant and not interested in the least. However, I ended up really enjoying it. I was able to reflect to others, as well as to myself, about things I had learned during the weeks of student teaching.
Twitter is very effective in helping students to become concise in their writing. Often times students write an excess of information, hoping the right answer is in there somewhere and cannot tell you specifically what the answer to the question is.
Here is one example of how a teacher uses twitter in her college classroom:
This teacher used twitter to help with class discussions, a very interesting way to include a large classroom in a discussion and the make everyone’s opinion heard (or read).
Other twitter uses I have seen:
- Warm-up (teacher uses a quote from a fellow tweeter or create her own warm-up)
- Posting homework/assignments for the day (great for students who are absent and for parents)
- Sharing links either from teacher to students, students to teacher, or teacher to teacher
- Scavenger hunts
- Today in history
- Brainstorming in groups
- Book clubs
For more ideas on using Twitter in the classroom, click the link below.
Until next time, Socializing Can Be Fun!
- Lauren
References
Cooper-Taylor, Carol (2008). 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education. Retrieved from http://cooper-taylor.com/2008/08/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-education/
Kirkpatrick, Marshall
Twitter. http://www.twitter.com/
YouTube (2009). The Twitter Experiment – Twitter in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8.
This sounds kind of feasible, however saying:
ReplyDelete90 people can't all talk at the same time, but with Twitter, 90 people can all express their opinion...
But you have to read them one at a time, and let's say 30 have basically the same opinion, I have to read it 30 times, yet in class when someone says what I was thinking, I just nod my head in a agreement, I don't repeat them.
Most public schools are still anti-phone in the classroom I believe. And now they have become social media paranoid because there is always a teacher somewhere who used the technology to have the wrong kind of relationship with students.
So this will have the least resistance with older students in progressive schools.
I like the idea that students could write on paper and turn in and someone would post.
I'm always bothered how they always find a way to justify the odd things. "the 140 character limit makes them more concise in their writing..."
Wiki and forums will allow people to express themselves without those limits. Can be just as real time. Are searchable and can be accessed remotely, 24 hours a day if you have connectivity.
I like the video and the article, don't get me wrong. I just have always been that guy that tells the emporer they have no clothes!
The ideas and more ideas - great finds- good job!
Lauren, I really enjoyed reading your post. i think Twitter is an amazing technology. I think it is important to use the technology to benefit our teaching. If I taught middle or senior high classes I would like to use the technology for students to encourage students to share the opportunities outside of class with the class. For example if you are at the mall and see an idiom on a sign. Take the opportunity to post what you saw and how you feel about it. Was it funny? What did you think about it? What was the author trying to convey to the reader? I'm not just talking about English. If your mother burned your dinner did the states of matter change? Explain what happened. I would just encourage kids to notice what they are learning or have learned in their environments.
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