Twitter, twittering, tweets, tweeting! For our first assignment we had to do several things. First we had to create twitter accounts. After creating the accounts, we were responsible for sending direct tweets and tweeting in general. Prior to this assignment, I wasn’t big on tweeting. I did not feel there was much educational value to it. Once we started using it, though, I started to understand there was far more to it than met the eye.
Being in a group in twitter allowed certain people (our class) to be grouped together. I feel asking questions was easier using this method. Questions were answered faster than if they were posted to discussion boards. The answers also came from people who required little or no additional background information on the questions. I probably tweeted more questions than anyone else in the class. I had questions about books, passwords, and everything else.
Twitter could be a great asset in classrooms. Teachers could use twitter as a means of communication for parents and students. The timid students may be more prone to ask questions when they are able to do it on Twitter. The forgetful student may be able to ask questions immediately instead of having to wait until the teacher has finished. The question could still be addressed at the teacher’s discretion, but the student would not have to worry about trying to remember what they wanted to ask. Parents could also ask questions as they came to mind and teachers could answer them at will.
After I started using Twitter, I became interested in how K12 schools were using it. The information provided in the Lecture section of our class gave me a lot of ideas. I plan to pass this information on to as many teachers as I can. However, there is the possibility that none of the teachers or students will be able to use it. I am actually considering putting together some sort of presentation geared towards technology directors and/or coordinators who block Twitter, as well as other Web 2.0 tools, because they see no educational value to them.
Recently, I had a small debate with a couple educators. As a consensus, I think we decided that there is educational value, but things must be used in the right way. Technology, like everything else, can be good or bad depending on how it is used. I think Twitter can be used in more ways than we are even aware of yet.
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