Really? Twitter in the class?
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a social media service where people connect each other online. They can exchange messages, photos, links and text. They can follow pages, friends, family, co-workers and any experts in the field they are interested in. When they follow someone or a page, it means they can see what they post on their timelines.
Here is a simple guide on how to use Twitter:
How can we use Twitter for education?
There are many useful strategies for the educational use of Twitter. We can:
- learn from others and share their knowledge on Twitter
- use the research tool on Twitter; search and follow relevant hashtags, keywords or topics
- Assign homework
- announce activities, trips and/or contests
- Do surveys
- Get feedback from students and parents
- Share links for extended learning
- subscribe to hashtags
- connect with other classrooms around the world
- create a class hashtag
- keep up with development in education
- get access to resources we need
This microblogging social media tool is already being used for many years around the world for educational purposes. In Turkey, most of the private schools use this tool not only as their marketing tool but also parent collaboration/involvement tool as well.
Kathy Cassidy, a primary school teacher tells about her experience on using blogs and Twitter with students in grade 1 and 2:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Twitter?
There are a lot of advantages of using this microblogging tool in education. Here are some of them:
- It is a well-known, popular tool
- easy to use
- easy access to a wide range of resources
- improves communication and collaboration
- encourages 21st-century skills
- encourages to relate to global real-life learning
- encourages students' participation with a technology tool they are comfortable with and fluent at
However, as educators, we still need to consider some of the disadvantages of the tool for effective learning and teaching. Let's look into what these disadvantages could be:
- internet safety
- possibility of spams and /or validity of the information
- a risk of cyberbullying
- it can also be a distraction if not used effectively
- constant update and changes on the tool, both teachers and students need keep up to date
- can cause limitation to face to face communication
In conclusion, educators and educational leaders need to consider all these issues before and when integrating this technological tool into the classroom or online learning for effective objectives.
References:
Comments
Post a Comment