Twitter in the classroom (and out of it)

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Permalink Reply by Cathy Nelson on June 14, 2008 at 9:33am

IMHO kids (even our very young) don't need Twitter--they already have a lock on successful use if IM, text messaging w/ cell phones, and the Social Networking avenues. Let's not make Twitter "schooly." Just my opinion....

Great food for thought though.

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Permalink Reply by Leigh Newton on June 14, 2008 at 10:06pm

The South Australian Dept of Ed would probably suggest not to use Twitter, given their response to Al Uptons mini legends' class blog. One of the issues is that blogs and other social networking may reveal too much info about individuals.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Hill on July 10, 2008 at 2:58am

Update to this comment. MiniLegends lives on. See: http://minilegends.edublogs.org/

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Permalink Reply by Cathy on June 15, 2008 at 12:10am

I agree that twitter is not really the forum for your students. Paul Allison started a site for students called youth twitter, or how about networking on wikispaces? It can do all of the things you are asking for.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Clift on June 18, 2008 at 5:47pm

I must say it's disappointing to note the reaction from the SA dept of Ed - we're just about to get going with blogs in our classroom (using edublog for each student) and surely giving the students access to this at school and learning to use it responsibly is better than putting our collective heads in the sand and just getting them to work it all out for themselves once they hit adolesence.

Anyway, all interesting points. I was interested in using twitter due to it's simplicity and by virtue of this the increased chance that students would actually use it to communicate (and as a 'follower' I can see their communications just in case) outside of school on things we're doing in school. I'll look into the other options a bit more though - RSS feeds for blogs has been recommended (though not quite so instantaneous) and I must admit I haven't looked at wikispaces much yet (but I will time permitting!).

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Permalink Reply by Gloria Brogdon on June 23, 2008 at 8:11pm

I think Twitter could be used in the primary classroom, as long as there is a clear cut objective for its use. I also think for some kids micro blogging is a good tool to get them to start writing. As for the privacy issue, students can create screen names.

Lesson Examples:

1. A nonlinear collaborative story based on a reading lesson, or original story idea. Create small groups, each group is assigned a different section of the story ( beginning, middle, or end), and have the students re-write the section. Once completed, Twitt the story. This can create discussion in many areas of the writing process. Then the students can individually Twitter their thoughts on the process of writing in a nonlinear environment.

2. Twitter the process and results of a class science project.

3. Twitter an original collaborative play or short movie script. Once it is completed have the students create an original video.

Just a thought.

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Permalink Reply by Danielle Heaton on June 24, 2008 at 8:19am

Those are great ideas, Gloria! It's a good way to get students to start writing and to get them to say what they want to say in the least amount of words possible.

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Permalink Reply by Toffler on July 2, 2008 at 10:08pm

I really like twitter and think its a great idea as a way for students to write concise notes back and forth and engage in group collaboration.

However, I'd be worried that students would start using it for non-academic purposes or to insult fellow students in front of all their peers. Once a tweet has been sent out only the person who wrote it can delete it, so in this sense it turns into a permanent record.

The privacy settings help somewhat, ie making your tweets private. If you decide to use this, you can ask the students to make their accounts private, and only give access to the other members of the class and yourself.

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Permalink Reply by Adina Sullivan on July 10, 2008 at 9:33am

I personally don't use it with students and am definitely not fond of the idea for for primary students. Here is an article though that Angela Maiers just sent (via Twitter) about "How Schools Can Use Social Networking"

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Permalink Reply by Scott Walker on July 10, 2008 at 7:54pm

Gloria, INCREDIBLE ideas! You have a keen eye for adding meaningful curriculum to web 2.0.

My way of thinking is that kids are going to have to learn about it somewhere. Why not let it be under the supervision of an educated adult. Especially if we can make it meaningful.

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Permalink Reply by Gloria Brogdon on July 11, 2008 at 2:36pm

Scott you are correct, students are going to use twitter no matter what. Very much like IM'ing. and all the other communication applications out there. If they find it, they are going to use it.

With all the new research and development in the area of Web 2.0, we as educators have to stop being reactive to what might go wrong with their usage in the classroom, and be proactive , by creating curriculum that incorporates these applications based on national technology standards.

Why are we as educators so afraid of the bad things that may happen to our students if they use these applications. If we show the students what they can create by using web 2.0 applications, they won't have time to send nasty twitts, as well as why would they twitt nasty things about people they are collaborating with????

Hummm... Just some random thoughts.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Pierce on July 13, 2008 at 8:03pm

Dave,

My 13yr old son and I are using Twitter now to keep up with his writing while he is at his father's for the summer. In such short spurts it's much less overwhelming to him to write something, and he puts thought into getting the most concise message across as he can. I think it's a fabulous idea, especially for kids who aren't comfortable with writing. Twitter has been promising to build "groups" for a long time, so perhaps that would solve some issues. As far as errant tweets go, you may well want to provide the children with some civics lessons about slander etc. as it is a public space. Perhaps this takes it too far, but, what an excellent way to introduce them to micro blogging as a social network and how it functions in the real world.

PS. We're using twitter to field questions for interviewees of our documentary film and it's an amazing tool! (lifeinperpetualbeta.com)

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