On the suggestion of my Integrating Technology professor, this week I visited high school English Starr Sackstein's blog, specifically the post 12 Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom. I was immediately interested in the post because Ms. Sackstein works in a high school English classroom, and English is my area of interest. I also happen to be a pretty big fan of Twitter, so I was thrilled to see two of my passions combined in one post!
I really like the way that Ms. Sackstein describes Twitter as "micro-blogging" - what an apt description! What Ms. Sackstein has done is essentially embraced her students' natural enthusiasm for Twitter, and found a way to harness that enthusiasm and put it to use in her classroom. Each week, she directs students to an article online and then asks that they participate in a chat about the article on Twitter, posting their own comments and also replying to their classmates' comments.
In this way, this teacher has engaged her students and put them in charge of their own learning. She has identified something that her students have a natural passion for, and found a way to integrate that into her curriculum. She simultaneously teaches students the content area knowledge that she needs to cover and increases their literacy by teaching them about the basics of interacting via Twitter.
I love the idea of taking class discussions to Twitter, because I can really see how that would spark students' interest in participating in the discussion.
Have you ever used Twitter in your classroom? Would you consider using it in this way?
I have never used Twitter in my personal life or in schools......Your post brought up so good ideas for Twitter to work in classes. I believe that using many of the technology will rely on students growing up with digital citizenship classes so that they will act appropriate with the chatting and responding that you are refering to. I definitely think that a discussion can work if all the students have access and follow the schools policies.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! I definitely agree that digital citizenship classes are hugely important. I think schools should offer training on this subject for their teachers, to make sure they understand it as well.
DeleteI think I could see it being useful in a normally too-chatty class because it gives them an outlet they may enjoy, while requiring their fingers to do the talking :)
ReplyDelete