In class, we've been learning how Twitter could be used in a classroom. I was very skeptical at first. Twitter seemed too wide ranging to me. Compared with social media like Facebook, Twitter has a lot more posts, and seems to zip by at high speed. But we were shown an application called TweetDeck which made it so much better! There, we could follow a conversation, with people using certain hashtags. We did a classroom activity on Twitter as a group, and I noticed one very beneficial result. Students who have a fear of speaking up in front of others were more likely to join in this way! So I thought to myself, "Self (that's what I call myself), what other apps could be out there that are just as interesting?" So it became time to explore! The first link shows four apps that look useful and fun to use. Let me know if you agree :)
YouTube Video
My other concern with using Twitter in a classroom was this; Do the powers that be in school districts and National Education organizations approve such things? Think of it this way.. wouldn't you hate to make up an amazing lesson plan around this concept only to have your principal and administrators turn it down? So I was very interested to see what the National Education Association had to say. Here, read for yourself....
NEA Article
Please feel free to leave comments, good or bad! I can take it, I promise! I hope this shows others (like it showed me), that we're just discovered the top of the Twitter iceberg. There is so much more out there waiting for us!
I totally agree that people that don't speak up in class would tweet in conversations instead. Also I could see some schools not being okay with their student on twitter as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about children who are afraid to speak up or share using twitter to answer. I never thought of using it that way. Twitter was confusing to me too at first but tweet deck puts more in front of you at one time. I love all the colors on your blog and I can tell you put a lot of effort into your work!!
ReplyDeleteI had the same first reaction when he said we are using twitter I was skeptical but then much the same way you did I realized how helpful twitter actually could be.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it can help those students who have trouble speaking up in class. I was one of those students in school and it would've been nice if there would've been an alternative.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that article from the NEA. That was very interesting to read. Thanks for sharing that!
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