More and more students are joining Twitter everyday. Teachers are joining Twitter for professional development purposes…that’s why I joined Twitter! Isn’t time Twitter is used as an educational tool?
Sure, teachers have limited, if any, control over what students post on Twitter. With many web 2.0 tools, such is the case. Does that mean we eliminate tools like Kahoot or Padlet from our repertoire? Absolutely not!
Are you ready for more ways Twitter can be used in classroom INSTRUCTION and ASSESSMENT?!
How do you feel about using Twitter in the classroom?
- Presidential Addresses/Speeches
- After watching the State of the Union address, students must tweet an important comment, a question, or a memorable event. This can help hold students accountable for watching the address…since we often offer bonus points when students “watch” the address!
- CNN/other news network
- On a specified date or day of the week, require students to tweet a newsworthy event that was discussed on one of many news networks. To encourage students to gain information from a variety of sources, teachers could require students to watch CNN for the first activity, Fox News for another, MSNBC, ABC, BBC, etc. Students could even tweet similarities and differences between how major news networks cover a specific event!
- Reflections to class readings/assignments
- After reading a primary source, for example, have students tweet a question or a comment about that source. Those of us that have studied primary sources, and used them as teaching tools in our classrooms, know that these valuable documents can be dense and difficult to read and comprehend. It may be helpful to read a source in class, discuss the source with classmates, and then later in the day post a comment or a question about the source.
- Questions about assignment
- Do students have problems with an assignment or activity that was assigned out of class? Tell them to tweet about it! Their classmates and/or teacher can help on Twitter!
- Questions about test
- Are students stuck on a specific concept? Are they confused about a graph or chart that may be on the test? Students can tweet their questions and receive help from their classmates and/or their teacher!
Using Twitter as a classroom tool can also serve as a teachable moment for the extremely important issue of digital citizenship. If students are encouraged to use their personal Twitter account to communicate with their teacher and classmates, they might be more cognizant about the content they post on the social media tool. If students create a new Twitter account for class related communications, they may realize what information should be shared in an academic or professional environment, and what should remain private!
How do you feel about using Twitter in the classroom?If you’re interested in using Twitter as an instructional tool, but aren’t able to do so because of district policies, check out this printable that incorporates Twitter in an activity!
Watch for my next post about using Schoology as a Learning Management System…coming soon!
Thanks for reading 🙂
I have used Twiducate with students. It is through Twitter but designed for education. Here is the link if you would like to check it out. http://www.twiducate.com/
My students really enjoyed it.
I've been perusing twiducate for about two weeks and have a post brewing about it now! Glad you like it. I'll definitely explore it more. Thanks for reading!