Journal 5: Try Twitter

I have had a teacher twitter account for years. One of the reasons I actually created my account was so that I could participate in group tweets about conferences that I was attending. It allows me to stay up to date with my favorite presenters and get great ideas on topics I teach. I love following @DoInkTweets and @annkozma723. She always has great ways to use green screen in the classroom and inspired me to change my boring old 4th grade mission reports into fun animated green screen projects. Twitter also allows me to stay up to date with what other teachers and administrators in my district are doing and how they are innovating in their classrooms. While I love to use twitter for my personal professional development I do not use it in my classroom due to the age of my students (4th grade). I can see this being an extremely valuable tool in high school and even middle school as seen in the video “Twitter in the Class.” After looking the list of 35 interesting ways to use twitter I think I would like to adapt some of the ideas into an offline version so students are exposed to social media tools without having their own accounts. I think they would really enjoy creating tweets for historical figures we are studying! I was also thinking about using tweets as “tickets to recess” or “one thing you learned today.”

Q: Can twitter be used in an offline capacity when students are too young to have their own accounts?

A: Absolutely! Students of all ages hear about or are exposed to social media; their parents and older siblings use it and they see it on TV. I believe teachers should utilize what students are interested in to engage them in what they are learning. By creating offline versions of twitter or Facebook students can gain the benefits of social media without the dangers that can come from such accounts.

Q: How can I keep up to date with all of the people and hashtags I follow?

A: I love using TweetDeck! This is an website or chrome extension you can use to “organize and build custom timelines, keep track of lists, searches, activity and more—all in one interface.” If you have more than one account you can manage them all with tweetdeck and you can even schedule tweets. I really enjoy using this dashboard app during conferences so I can see what sessions I should be going to, what people are saying about what they are learning, and all of the great ideas that are being exchanged.