Twitter has become the microblog of choice. People in sales, business, and public relations are jumping on this bandwagon. "In particular, we saw its communication potential expand when Iranians were protesting election fraud in 2009. Twitter worked because it operates differently from other web-based tools.
People can use [Twitter] to communicate with each other from a multitude of locations... You do not have to visit the home site to send a message, or tweet. Tweets can originate from text-messaging on a cellphone or even blogging software. Likewise, tweets can be read remotely, whether as text messages or, say, "status updates" on a friend's Facebook page. (Cohen, June 21, 2009)" (From web 2.0: how-to for educators - page 34)Although you can use the Twitter site, or send messages via text messages - there are some other sites you can use as well.
- Twhirl - A desktop program you can download to your computer to manage tweets &other social media.
- Twuffer - Allows you to schedule tweets, posts, etc
- SocialOomph - Another option to schedule your tweets - has other features as well.
- Future Tweets - Want to send a tweet next week, but wont be around a computer? Also works with other social media programs.
Why is Twitter Useful?
Twitter is a great way to connect with an extended Professional Learning Community. You can post a question and get a response from your community. You can invite people to read you latest blog post. Or direct them to an article you just read. This list goes on.
Another Option
Since Twitter is a public option (you can control who sees your tweets) some in school settings have started using edmodo as an option. This is similar in look to facebook. A teacher can set up a private community and invite students, parents and other teachers to their page. Teachers and students can share files, links and notes. I have a group of advanced students (known as our "Techies" - I will be testing this with them this year.) I will be able to post announcements, jobs, and other information on the site. They can also update other techies and me on progress on their tasks.
Professional Development
An important part of teacher's professional development is time to discuss with other teachers. Twitter allows teachers to connect with teachers in a global community. To help find a group of teachers to connect with, try the Twitter4Teacher wiki. From this site - you can look up topics you teach and find others who teach similar topics. Then "follow" them on Twitter. Many will post articles, blog posts, and ideas they are using in their classes. You can also post questions and some may respond.
Ideas in the Classroom
Students can work on communicating an idea in a few words. You can encourage tweets on a topic. Sometimes communicating an idea in few words is tougher than using more words. Although this should not replace all of our writing - it might help the reluctant writer get started. Students could tweet their thesis statement for a project, answer a question about what they feel is the biggest technological influence in this century and why, or give 3 brief reasons for the start of World War I. These could be displayed using the projector in the room and discussed from there.
Twitter can be used to remind students about upcoming events, trips, and assignments. Students can follow a teacher's Twitter (allowing them to get these as text messages as well) or teachers can include a gadget on their webpage that will post the tweets). Students could also tweet questions to homework, projects, etc to be answered by teacher or other students. (Some teachers may wish to have a "personal" twitter & and separate "teacher" twitter.)
Interactivity can be engaging for students. They can use tweets to gather data from literally around the world. Students could ask their global network to tweet them the current temperature where they live. Students could convert the Celsius temperatures to Fahrenheit and then graph these temperatures. You could have them tell you the price of a common item and then compare prices around the world. You could tie in geography to these and look at where these tweets are coming from. Use your creativity to see what you can come up with in your classroom. You might need to give 24 hours for responses because of time differences.
As a teacher - you can create "Twalter-Egos" (short for Twitter Alter Egos). Create fictional characters and follow their tweets. As the students get to know the characters you can begin to create an activity. Have students prepare questions to ask the character. Write a letter to the character about a certain topic or issue. You could even have the Twalter Ego be a historic figure (but don't give away who it is). See if students can figure out from the tweets who the figure is. Or ask them to write some tweets that a historic figure may have written.
To get students writing - you can give the students a theme or genre. Then create a story opener (tweet this information to your global network). Ask the network to continue the story in tweets, they should use the previous tweets. You can follow these on Twitterfall or use a hashtag (#tag). Students follow the tweets, choose the best ones, and then edit the story to make it coherent.
For more ideas on Twitter
There is a great couple of resources for teachers:
I'm still learning...
No comments:
Post a Comment