Wednesday, July 15, 2009
A Quick Note on Twitter
As I was reading a classmate's post voicing concerns over using Twitter in the classroom, an idea came to me that I want to remember. I can see the value of Twitter in connecting multiple classrooms in which you teach the same subject. You may teach the same class 4-5 times in a day, but each lesson may be different based on the differing student groups. Twitter can help connect these classes and build dialogue across classrooms for a richer understanding of material. It so often happens that a student will come up with a great idea and the teacher's reaction is "Why isn't this student in all my classes?" Well, through Twitter I believe he or she can be. While there are many programs that can facilitate such learning, I think Twitter lends itself particularly well to it. In Twitter you have to get right to the point of what you are saying because you only get 140 characters per post. Through this, extra side thoughts must be left "at the door" leaving the main point crystal clear and easy to understand. This way ideas can be exchanged quickly and easily through multiple classrooms for a deeper understanding of concepts.
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Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you on all the possibilities twitter can bring. While I'm still struggling to use it much on a personal level, I get pretty excited when thinking about what it could lend to a classroom. I really like the idea of bringing in other classes to the discussion. Especially if you're teaching say two English or history classes, you could bring the discussions together. All in all I think there's a lot more to it than I ever imagined!
What a great idea, Ryan! This is something I hadn't given any thought to, but I think that students would really appreciate having some kind of way to tap into what happens in other sections of the same course that they're taking. I remember often in high school when a teacher would tell something to 5th hour English but not to 6th hour English, for example, and I think that this would be an awesome way to help bridge those inevitable gaps.
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping me think about Twitter in a new way!
I have to agree with you. I wasn't convinced of twitter's usefulness until I started using it as you described. On the days that we've been split up into groups A and B, I've used twitter to get an idea of what the other class is doing. It's also nice to get people's reactions during class. I never thought I'd like Twitter but here I am using it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Twitter could be used to connect multiple classrooms. If you are teaching the same class five times, you could share links and resources among the five sections using Twitter. It is also a way for students to connect across sections and do group projects with other students. I still think Twitter is more useful as a means of communicating outside class. It would be too much of a distraction during class and also lead to a number of off task behaviors.
ReplyDeleteI have struggled over the past few weeks in regard to twitter because it updates so fast and the information quantity is daunting. I tend to shy away from reading all of the comments just for the sake of time, but I can see what you mean by all of the possibilities.
ReplyDelete