Twitter

According to twitter's about page on their website, [|Twitter] "is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news." Twitter is one of several social media outlets that has taken off during this generation of technology and was created six years ago. Today it has grown into one of the most popular and recognized companies in the world, having an estimated 532 million register users ([|Twitter's 6th Birthday]). In modern day society, Twitter is everywhere we look, whether it is on TV, newspapers, magazines, family, friends, and is even being integrated into classrooms across America.

Teachers across America are beginning to bring Twitter into their classrooms in order to enhance their teaching and student learning and I commend teachers for doing so. By integrating Twitter into classrooms teachers are practicing universal design that many of today's children enjoy and can relate to. The ways in which teachers can use Twitter in the classroom is endless. Teachers can opt to use Twitter as an easy form of communication that can keep students and even parents on top of what is going on in the classroom in a much simpler way than traditional newsletters or emails. If students and parents have a twitter account and follow their teacher then all the teacher needs to do is simply compose and send a tweet that will instantly reach all of their followers. When Twitter is used in this capacity, students are more likely to be on top of what is being learned in the classroom, aware of due dates, and have an overall enhanced learning environment.

While Twitter can be used to keep students and parents connected to the teacher and the classroom, it can also be used for students of the classroom to communicate with one another and help each other out. The teacher or students of a classroom can create a hash-tag (#) for a particular assignment or activity that is going on in the classroom and can use this hash-tag when referring to this assignment. Students can bounce questions around from one another and can even ask questions to their teachers that can be easily found if using a hash-tag or a mention (@). This use of Twitter can be used outside of the classroom, but can also be used in the classroom if technology is available. Students are able to pose questions and speak their mind and within seconds the entire class is able to see what that particular student tweeted. Twitter is currently used in a variety of classrooms and is a great example of universal design being used in the classroom. It is only going to continue to grow and will become even more integrated within the classroom. The possibilities of how Twitter can be incorporated into the classroom are endless and in the future the creativity of teachers will continue to help expand the connection between Twitter and the classroom.

- Sam M. Clark

Twitter can also be used in a classroom for participation. For example, if a student is shy but wants to answer a question, the student can tweet at the teacher. This is also a helpful way for teachers to get everyone in class to participate. Also, the teacher can ask a question to the whole class and ask them to tweet the answer. This way, the teacher can hear from every student. Students can follow news channels and other informative organizations so that they are up to date with current events and issues. Teachers can also get ideas from each other through the use of twitter. They can look at the trending topics and get different ideas from other teachers. A downfall of using Twitter in the classroom is that students can get distracted on their phones. They could also tweet inappropriate things to each other. I think that Twitter can be very useful in the classroom, but it somehow needs to be monitored also.

- Cara Umsted

Twitter can be used for creative purposes in the classroom. One fun way to incorporate Twitter is to have all of the students create a blog. They could do these blogs from the eyes of a historical figure (i.e. George Washington) or from themselves. The students then could blog about facts they have learned about the person they picked or about information that they would like to share. An activity like this could make a creative use of Twitter in the classroom. This can also enhance all students to participate. This way of incorporating technology into the classroom provides the teacher with a UDL lesson, because it gives all students the chance to participate. Students could work on these Twitters from inside the classroom to even in their own home. It also gives students who are unable to write or speak in class the opportunity to still participate and show what they are learning. I think that Twitter could be put to great use in the classroom, as long as teachers find creative ways to incorporate it. However, teachers will need to make sure that all Twitters are protected as well as the students using them. With the use of Twitter, comes the chance of cyber-bullying. Keeping this in mind, it is crucial that teachers implement rules and regulations for the use of Twitter and anything else they chose to use online!

- Katie Barrett

Twitter is an excellent source of communication for teachers and students. As mentioned above, teachers and students can communicate publicly on Twitter by "mentioning" one another but there is also a private form of communication called a "DM" (short for direct messaging). Direct messaging allows teachers and students to discuss things that should be kept between the both of them that might embarras the student or any type of personal information. For example, a teacher can easily tell their students the grade that they got on an exam, assignment or project. Furthermore, Twitter is also an excellent source of communication for teachers and parents for the exact same reason. Instead of a parent having to wait for their child's midterm or report card to come in the mail they can easily direct message the teacher and find out how they are currently doing in school. A teacher can also tell parents if their child is misbehaving in class, acting irregularly, is sick, etc.

- Boyce Tolson

Twitter is a great way to encourage collaboration and connectivity in the classroom. The newsfeed allows students to coordinate assignments and share their ideas for different projects in a fun creative way rather than using a basic email chain. Also, as previously mentioned, students can use the hashtag to see how the different trending topics spread and it enables them to view ideas that others around the world are communicating. Twitter also allows students to connect with the global community by discussing cultural topics to a broader audience than just the students in the classroom. Parents are able to stay connected to their child's academics through Twitter by "following" their child and the teacher to keep in track of any upcoming homework assignments and events. Overall, Twitter is a great way for students to share and compare ideas, projects, assignments, questions, and concerns with their peers and the teachers. It allows for everyone to be actively involved, which creates a highly interactive and collaborative classroom.

- Briana Marsh

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey. It is an online service that allows its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters. These posts are known as “tweets.” Because Twitter is so constricted and only allows a select amount of characters, it could be helpful in the classroom. Often times students struggle with only incorporating necessary information in their schoolwork. By only being able to post a certain amount of words, students would learn how to pick the most relevant and useful information to write about instead of adding in unnecessary thoughts and facts. Their writing and though-processing would change for the better.

- Claire Reyering

Twitter is a form of social networking which allows users to follow, tweet, re-tweet, and favor posted tweets of people they follow. Users can follow friends, families, companies, classmates and even their favorite celebrities. Twitter also offers outer links users can click on that are outside sources of other websites. This can be educational for users because they can social network while having access to outside sources. It is a lot of fun, entertaining, and useful for its members. Twitter also allows users to follow DIY networking sites which are beneficial to future teachers therefore providing unique fun crafts for future classrooms. Overall, Twitter can be both exciting and educational if users practice and learn to use the social networking site. [] [] []

- Danielle Miller

We are finding Twtter in more and more classrooms.Instead of battling students of social media some educators are finding a place for it in the classroom. It seems in a classroom a small group of students tend to dominate class disscussions using Twtter in the classroom gives others who don't like to speak out for whatever reason a voice. Teachers are able to give feedback on the spot according to Legaspi, an eighth grade teacher. He is embracing the new technology and enjoying what it brings to the clasroom. See full article []

Here is a video about Twitter being used in the classroom []

These social sites are apart of our society and is the way many communicate with each other. This encourges children to give opinions and also teaches other forms of communication for those who have never tweeted. -Amber Stone

Twitter is basically a means for communication and information presented immediately with the click of a mouse and the touch of the keys. Twitter was created about six years ago, and about 460,000 new accounts being added a day, is growing faster than ever. []

Twitter can be an effective tool used in the classroom.

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The website above explains different ways twitter can be used based on the different age groups; My favorite twitter related school plan is having the students "take a seat and tweet". This idea is presented as a bell ringer for the students. Students are constantly distracted by every day technology from cell phones and twitter and computers, that now this technology can be interacted into the classroom and gets the urge to be on the phone and computer out of the way for the students. Students come in and take a seat and get out their computers and phones and tweet the answer to the bell ringer the teacher puts on the overhead or white board.

Twitter is an excellent form of communication among students, teachers, and parents.

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-Kaitlin Schultheiss

Like stated above, Twitter provides a great teaching opportunity in the classroom. There are several ways in which you could incorporate twitter. One way that you could do this is to create a fictional twitter account and tweet as if you are that character. For example, you could pretend to be Martin Luther King Jr. The tweets could be in reference to the Civil Rights Movement and what is going on. One of his tweets could be about a march and where it is located and what time it begins. This would allow the student to show what they have learned about a specific individual. A teacher would be able to tell if the student learned about the person based on the tweets the person sent. Another opportunity that Twitter presents is the opportunity to follow current issues. It could be worldwide, just the United States or just in a city. By looking at the trending topics you would be able to see what is popular at that point in time. The downside of this though is that some trending topics are quite random and may not reflect what is going on in the world. Another way to keep up with the current news on Twitter would be to follow big news centers such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. This would allow the students to hear about big issues that are getting national and world attention. Twitter provides many opportunities for teachers to get their students involved with in the classroom. With the changing media, it is important that teachers stay up to date with these changes and being on Twitter is a way to do this.

-Gretchen Pearson

Like Gretchen said, Twitter is a great way to follow big news events in the classroom. When I was in high school, my history teacher used Twitter to help us learn about current issues. Our class was focused on learning about the Arab- Israeli conflict, so when the riots in Egypt started, we followed the action on Twitter. It was neat to see and understand the tweets because we had been learning about the material, and it was a real-life application to the information we had been lectured on. The lesson was interactive and fun because it wasn't just the traditional lecture class. Also, Twitter can be used by the teacher to allow students to ask questions in a way that may be less intimidating than during class or in office hours. For teachers, it's an easy way to make announcements and provide students with information about the class. A teacher can send reminders about homework assignments or interesting links to students. I think that Twitter may be more effective than email in some cases because students are more likely to pay attention to social media sites than their email. -Jordan Griebner As many others have stated, Twitter is great at enabling students to follow current events and local, national and international trends. By clicking on one hashtag or by searching one term, students can instantly see tweets (often containing links to articles and/or videos) from all over the world. Twitter also causes students to be precise in their language and writing. A tweet only allows 140 words, so students are forced to learn how to identify the important detail(s) and how to accurately word things in a short and quick manner. Often times students can be very wordy, and Twitter can help students work on this. In student teaching I used twitter and twitter like activities, with limited characters, to help students work on being brief and precise in their wording. Twitter also helps students learn how to network in a relatively simple manner. Students are tweeting already, so incorporating it into learning is a great way to connect information to the real world. http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

The above website has a whole list of ways to use Twitter in the classroom. A decent amount of these relate to politics. Politicians, activist groups and lobbyist groups all have Twitters and tweet often! This is a great way to have students get information, follow what is happening, speak out and get involved. Also, students can use Twitter to communicate about assignments, what was discussed in class, if notes are needed, etc...

-Will Sheets