Using Twitter In Education

Twitter has become a new technology tool that is being used by just about everyone. Flipping through the TV channels you hear celebrities talking about their latest tweets. Driving down the street, the local video rental store’s sign displays, “Follow us Twitter.” Twitter is also being used as an educational tool. Can Twitter be an effective teaching tool? This blog will look at ways to use Twitter in the classroom.

Watching Twitter being used in an actual teaching environment is a great start to seeing if Twitter is right for your classroom. http://vodpod.com/watch/1497715-twitter-in-the-classroom In this video a high school from Minnesota is showing how students use Twitter in the classroom. One teacher reported that using Twitter has helped her students by keeping them engaged and learning how to express their thoughts more clearly. The administration is also making sure students are up to date with current technology because they feel it is important to future success in the workplace.

Reading blogs from professors using Twitter is another effective way to see if Twitter is right for your classroom. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2699/a-professors-tips-for-using-twitter-in-the-classroom At first, David Parry didn’t see any educational benefit to Twitter but he decided to try it anyway. He found out right away that Tweeting helped to build a sense of community in his classes. He also brought up a negative aspect to Tweeting. Some students had to pay a text-messaging fee every time they had a tweet sent to their phone. Reading the professor's blog also gives the reader the opportunity to read comments left by other teachers. Teachers may find the responses left by the readers of the blog may be more beneficial than the actual blog itself.

Teachers today are very lucky to have the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies. http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_118cfb8msf8 This is a collaborative presentation made by teachers using Twitter in the classroom. It is shows 25 ways to creatively use Twitter in the classroom. A benefit to watching this presentation is that the viewer is exposed to screenshots, tutorials and new tools to make Twitter better. For example the website, Twitterfall, can let a student watch real-time tweets fall from the top of the page of the latest and most popular trends on Twitter. Students can customize and search for the Tweets they want displayed. http://twtpoll.com/new.php is a quick way to poll your students and with http://beta.twiddeo.com/ students can tweet with video. These are a few examples of how the presentation shows Twitter as an effective educational tool.

The British government is seeing the benefits of using Twitter in education. They are proposing that primary students should be taught the core subjects plus media and web-based technology. Teaching primary students blogging, podcasting and teaching with Twitter is making the biggest change in primary schooling the British government has seen in the past ten years. http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/please-sir-how-do-you-re-tweet-twitter-to-be-taught-in-uk-primary-schools/

With all of the good reasons for using Twitter, there has to be some bad reasons to using it in the classroom. http://www.scribd.com/doc/2286799/Can-we-use-Twitter-for-educational-activities brings up some points that need to be considered if teachers are thinking about using Twitter in the classroom. Having students and getting parents used to this new technology can be a long frustrating process. Tweeting during a lesson may be too distracting for students with disabilities. Students tweeting each other can impede learning and lead to off-task behavior. Teachers may feel pressured to check or respond to tweets outside of the classroom.

Please check back soon for Using Delicious in Education.