There are tons of cool things Twitter can be used for besides sharing personal Tweets you can Tweet about movies or shows your watching, take pictures and hashtag them to locate other photos or similar posts. The possibilities are endless on what Twitter can be used for.
I found on fluency21.com a submission on 60 ways to use Twitter in the classroom. This post was submitted by Ian Jukes via TeachThought. I liked how there was categories to show how Twitter can be used in the different areas of the classroom. You can use it to send class announcements out to inform stud ets of what they need to bring to class. It can also be used as a summary tool to recap what was taught in class. Playing word games with others sending out clues about what the word could be. This next one I found to be funny but so true because we all have at least one the the classroom a blurter... This person can now Tweet the answer in and stop blurting out the answers... Now the others have time to answer.
One I didn't think of but thanks to this post you can use Twitter in conjunction with social studies class. A lot of public government officials have Twitter accounts and students can get real life updates about what is happening. It helps stay connected with different parts of the world.
Overall I have not had a bad experience with Twitter and would like to use it in a classroom in the future just not with a classroom as young as mine, until I can figure out a way to do so.
I loved your idea of following government officials. I can definitely imagine using that in a classroom setting.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned using Twitter to my 6th graders today and discussed some of its possible uses besides the strictly social aspects. They struggled a little at first to think of "educational" purposes for Twitter, but with a little guidance started making their own suggestions.
I discovered TweetFind that provides a Twitter Directory. It even has a "Government" category to help find officials.
http://www.tweetfind.com/
Thanks for informing me of tweetfind. I didn't know that existed.
DeleteI'm not really into the hashtags either. Most of the time I forget about using them, but I have a goal to try to start using hashtags. Maybe not all the time but occasionally. I also love the idea of following government officials on Twitter. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteTami. I know when hashtags are used it does place the tweets into a category to better find later ans compare your tweets to others who hashtaged the same things.
DeleteI never thought of this as a recap tool! That's a great idea. One down fall with my kids is that once they see someone's post they tend to write or type the exact same thing. Even if I tell them they have to come up with something different somehow they manage to reword and use the exact same idea. I still however think this is a great idea. The superintendent of my school district tweets about a number of things from closing due to inclement weather, things that are happening within the classrooms, and even articles that relate to education that would benefit parents and educators. I can definitely see where Twitter would benefit a number of people in the educational realm.
ReplyDeleteLindsey I can understand the students using the same
DeleteIdeas as their classmates when going to read the tweets. I tend to feel sometimes I do the same after reading all these discussions. But as far as how your superintendent does closing and uses Twitter is fantastic. My school has yet to start using twitter for things.
I think the idea you shared for "The blurter" is a great one. I have a chunk of our gifted cluster and they always shout out answers. I would love for them to be able to do it this way. Unfortunately with younger students they don't understand when some students get to do something and others don't. I know that all I would hear would be, " I wanna do it too."
ReplyDelete@Lindsey P. I considered the same downfall with my students. Your reluctant writers will just copy what someone else said and try to claim it was their idea too. I was trying to think of a way that our students could be held accountable for their answer before they tweet it.
Jennifer I agree twitter and maybe say any student under third or fourth grade it might not work with. I think Twitter though is still an excellent resource to use with kids even if they are looking at other classroom tweets.
DeleteWhat is your Twitter username?
ReplyDeleteMelzb21
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