Well, yes, but there is SO much more, especially for education professionals! I have learned more through Twitter this school year than in probably the last several years of PD combined! I have even learned how to implement it in my classroom (teenagers LOVE twitter!) Here's a snippet of what I have learned and how I use it in class!
Professional Learning and Twitter
- There is a hashtag for everything. A hash tag categorizes your tweet. For example, I might tweet out a link to this blog. I will include the hashtag #edchat #flipclass and #edtech. This means when anyone searches on twitter for those hashtags (which is REALLY easy) they will see my posts and anyone else who posted to that tag. Here's a link showing various hashtags that you can search at anytime! Are you a social studies teacher (#sschat)? Do you LOVE the flip class as much as I do? #flipclass Do you like to talk about education on Saturday mornings? #satchat
- Even better, many of these twitter groups meet each week to discuss an education topic. For example, every Monday night for 8-9pm, there is a flipped class discussion at #flipclass. All you have to do is search for #flipclass and add your thoughts (or just watch the conversation). It is amazing how many connections you will make. After these chats, I often follow the people that I have chatted with (and they follow me)
- Once you are following someone (or organizations related to your field-almost every professional organization has a Twitter Account), you will see all of their tweets. Most of these tweets include links to articles on improving or reforming education. Many of these are shorter even than this blog for a quick read! I follow yummy math and ASCD just to name a few.
I quickly found out that my students were obsessed with twitter, and with 1:1 iPads they can check it anytime they want! I have decided to let them follow me, only because I use it as a school account and only tweet/re-tweet school-related tweets. If I wanted a personal Twitter account, I would simply create another account and would be able to block students.
- Inside class, students can answer discussion questions by tweeting to #apgov1 (first semester) or #apgov2(second semester). I made up these hashtags and you could do the same for your class. This way all of the students can search for the hashtag and find all the comments from your class! Twitter limits students to 140 characters so they HAVE to be consise in their answer. I have never seen a more engaged class than when we use Twitter!
- Outside of class, I use twitter as a review tool. The night before unit tests, we schedule a time where students can post questions to the class hashtag. I act as a moderator by going through the unit chapter by chapter. If no one has questions, I put out questions for students to answer. I have received a great deal of positive feedback!
Tara,
ReplyDeleteExcellent methods for using Twitter. Many of my colleagues think I am crazy for using Twitter with my students, but I have developed such a different relationship with them because of it. Over the summer one of my current students (before she was my student and before I was following her) was retweeted by a former student. In the tweet she said "I will probably go through all of HS and no one will know I am there." It became my mission to make sure that this girl knew I was there. Everyday she walked in with no emotion. Then one day in late October she smiled at me. Now she says hi to me everywhere I see her. Twitter did this. I use it as a teaching and PD resource as well, but never forget about that building relationship piece that is so crucial to teaching.