Twitter in a classroom.

After reading several articles on what people think about “twitter.” I got a better understanding of how this social network works. In the article How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense by Clive Thompson he talks about the fact that twitter gives people the chance to get to know others just by reading their daily posts on what they are doing. He goes on by saying “monitoring the lives of total strangers is fun.” I guess in a way it gives you a better perspective of who your friends are, and what they are doing; people “begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to them.” I also got a chance to read articles on how educators can use this site to have students post links, questions and a chance to interact with other students. “This is a way to create a community of kids who then will write the longer pieces [like blog posts] for each other,” states Kati Ash in her article Educators test the Limits of Twitter Microblogging tool. In her article she explains how many teachers around the nation believe that twitter is constantly showing them new tools and better ways of doing things using technology. I personally believe that there exist a million ways educators could use twitter in their classroom. For example I would have my students communicate their reactions to the material we are studying in class, have them write updates on what they did during their weekend, share their thoughts on specific books or topics, share personal stories, as well as their studying techniques. I would also give the students the opportunity to get to know their classmates on a personal level as well as other kids around the nation (pen-pals). After reading several suggestions on how twitter could be incorporated in a classroom setting, I can’t wait to put their ideas into practice and see how well my kids could adjust to this network and make a good use of it.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2008/06/24/01twitter_web.h02.html