A year ago very few people had ever heard of Twitter let alone twittering, tweets, tweetpics, etc. However more than 22 million people a day not only know what a twitter is but, they do it too! Twitter or microblogging is a form of digital communication that sends short messages to friends, family, co-workers and just about anyone else who wants to know what you are doing or thinking. The catch to this form of microblogging is to keep the characters under 140 characters. Short and simple or Keep it sweet and simple. Is this a social media Fad? Will this be here today and gone tomorrow?
In order to understand why everyone is getting on this "band wagon" or at least why educators and teachers find it appealing, you need to understand what are some of the benefits.
- It is attractive to newer teachers who are in search of mentors and support. By following educators tweets you can keep up with trends, find resources and good ideas. (NEA)
- In a lonely classroom teachers find comfort in educational friendships as well as learning from each other what is working and what is not working.
- Inside the classroom teachers can review lesson plans and remind students what homework assignments are due.
- Teachers can tweet a provocative question and students can tweet back the answers via cell phone or computer.
- Teachers are using twitter as an innovative way to share a creative story. Each student shares a small piece of the story.
- Twitter quick and easy, not labor intensive or frightening for students who don't like to write. In otherwords... NO ESSAY!
Still not convinced? Here is what some teachers are saying about Twitter:
- Together we are better
- Global or local.. your choice
- Self Awareness and Reflection
- Ideas, workshop and sounding board
- Time sensitive
- Immediate newsroom in a fast paced world
- Immediate quick professional development
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
- Your students are doing it... why not have them learn something with it!
Wondering what to tweet about? Here are some suggestions from Carol Coopers blog:
- Who or what has your attention?
- Need an opinion ?
- Tweet about other people's blogs, tweets
- Make it useful.. give advice, show pictures (at twitpic.com), great ideas and websites
Educators are finding more and more benefits to using Twitter in the classroom. Some educators are finding that "chatting" about learning activities do not just end in the classroom but, with Twitter then continue throughout the day in their home lives as well. This also is another way of extending the classroom community.
Tracking a word, Twitter has the ability to track a word and find all postings about this word. This was apparent when recently Iran came under the headlines of the news when an eruption of civil content broke out in the country. When news media couldn't get out Twitter could. By tracking a word such as Iran anyone could track people living in Iran and first hand get accounts of what was happening.
Instant Feedback: Because Twitter is instant, it allows for instant feedback. A teacher can provide a quick instant tweet sharing a positive feedback or information needed for an assignment.
As I have posted here many different ways to use Twitter in education I think I am saving my very favorite for last; Metacognition:
Thinking about our thinking process is a powerful learning tool and sometimes very difficult to teach and explain. Twitter is a fun and motivating application that allows for metacognition on a easy level. Twitter can allow users to be brief and to the point while reflecting. As an educator we can reflect about what we are learning through professional development and ask students to post a quick reflection about what they are thinking about in regards to a learning activity or reading.
Thanks for the tweet pic!
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