TWITTER - Classroom

I have to admit I was hesitant to hop on the "Twitter" bandwagon. I figured if obnoxious Hollywoodites were crazy about a micro-blogging tool that it couldn't be that beneficial to education. Right? I was negatively biased from the start, thinking Twitter was just a way for everyone to announce what they had for breakfast or the latest Foo Fighters' concert they attended.

Knowing our collective intelligence was going to touch on the importance of tweeting in learning, I figured I need to start my own Twitter account. I posted a handful of my own Tweets and started following others. To my surprise, I found Twitter a great way to keep abreast of learning technologies. And then I stumbled across this:

The DigMe program at the University of Minnesota embraces the research that shows that "people will need critical media literacy to succeed in 21st-century society" and encourages high school students in underprivileged areas to use digital media (including Web 2.0 tools) combined with critical thinking skills in their classrooms. Many high school students and college-age students are using the digital media anyway. Teachers in this program embrace the tweeting, wiki posting, Facebook status updates and such and use it to reach out to the students, connect with them on a personal level, and deliver course content.

I was wrong. I am starting to dig Twitter and the ways it can be used to enhance education.

Some Twitter Uses in the Classroom

• Teach while you're away. Gone a lot from your classroom? Be there virtually for a Q&A session with your students. It worked for this instructor.
• Create a classroom community. This UT Dallas professor requires his students to use Twitter to post messages and questions to the class along with requiring them to follow his Twitter feed. This casual and intellectual virtual connection between learners and educator has helped to create a positive learning community.
• Streamline class communications. Want to reach your students sooner with class announcements and assignment reminders? Twitter is a great option in lieu of email that saves you time as a teacher. Read more.
• Stimulate discussions. . . During class. One professor from Pennsylvania State University @ University Park encourages his students to tweet comments, questions, related articles, etc. during his lectures. Chaos? Maybe. But this virtual way of "passing notes" has led to deeper understanding and application of course content.
• The options can be simple but are plentiful. See 50 other ways to use Twitter as a useful teaching tool.

Twitter has the capability of fueling learning when students are directed to use it in productive and collaborative ways. Check out this article for some more reasons why you should consider using Twitter in YOUR classroom.