Twitter and education. Two aspects of my life that I did not ever think would collide. In class, we had to make a professional twitter account if we did not already have one, and this is a tool I did not think would prove helpful in the classroom, but I was mistaken. From watching the video in class, I gained insight into how twitter can be used effectively in the classroom. For some students, it gave them a voice they otherwise would not use in the classroom, and this is what changed my mind about using twitter in the classroom.
At first, I was skeptical. How could social media and learning go together? I was proven wrong. According to e-learning industry, “This micro-blogging portal is not only for entertainment, but it can have a very important role in academia as well. Students, teachers and parents will all benefit of being active on Twitter. The portal also helps forming very united and compact groups, and it helps increase the productivity and responsiveness of students”. This was proven true in the video we watched in class as well. The students all reacted positively toward twitter. The elementary aged kids loved being in the twitter hot seat and kept them interested. In my classroom, I could use this as a way to keep kids interested and engaged on what they are learning. After watching the video shown in class, my mind changed about twitter. Seeing the students react so well to twitter was shocking to me as I did not think it would be as effective as it was.
For younger kids, twitter can be used for things like spell and grammar check with their classmates, of course monitored by a teacher. Another way to use twitter within the classroom is announcing projects or even field trips. Parents of the students can follow the educator for the updates. This is a quick way to provide information to parents as opposed to email or updating a class website. Since Twitter is a social media, I know I personally check it more than I do my email or moodle, which would be equivalent to a classroom website.
Another way to introduce Twitter in the classroom is showing students how to appropriately use social media. By introducing Twitter in a healthy way, kids will learn the right and wrong of social media with the help of their teacher, At a young age, having a teacher or parent monitor the activity is a good way to make sure they are using social media in the correct manner. With active engagement, kids will be able to learn, create, and collaborate all in a safe way, which is user friendly. I know I knew how to use social media the moment I created an account, and I know the kids of today would be able to do the same. Social media is not going away, so we might as well teach the future generations to use it properly than to completely ignore it.
As Mrs. Farrell also discussed like this video did, Twitter is becoming a place for educators to connect. By using educational hashtags, you can interact with more people like you than you ever have before. You can get advice from other educators, see what they are doing in the classroom, and even create a learning network for yourself all on twitter. This has been shown to be effective for educators in creating networks of teachers like them and results in better learning for students if teachers are implementing ideas into their classrooms that students have responded well too. Showing you can connect and relate to others in your community is important, but also realizing you can make an impact in it is important as well. Melanie Farrell said there is a large growth on twitter with educators, and I am believing it the more I explore twitter. You can connect with anyone. By doing some of the twitter scavenger hunt and exploring hashtags, there are countless links it connects you with and many thinks you can learn. In our class by using the #eci201, we can see what anyone in our class has tweeted, and can easily find our classmates and make connections. It is so easy to do this with other hashtags as well, by exploring them, you can learn many things about other people such as the #educolor tag. I learned things I did not previously by exploring this hashtag. There are worlds within twitter that I now have access to from creating my professional twitter, and kids can benefit from this too. By connecting to educators, they too will be able to create their own professional learning network, by interacting with other kids, and even by following their teachers and parents.
Twitter is now a great resource for educators and their students. With endless ways to connect, learn and establish yourself, Twitter will be something I implement into my classroom, as long as it is still relevant them.
Resources:
https://elearningindustry.com/15-ways-twitter-in-education-students-teachers
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