Twittered and Unsure...

Anyone who knows me and understands me as an educator knows that I love to be current and relevant in the classroom, and this includes bringing in as much technology as possible when and where appropriate and learning all the up-and-coming Web 2.0 applications when time permits. I recently decided to learn how to use Twitter and I'm not sure that I'm all the impressed - yet. Granted, it's easy to use and it forces you to be succinct - only 140 characters per "tweet".

Here is where I can see it useful:

1. Class discussions and/or online seminars

2. Creation of community in a digital space

3. Instant feedback

4. A public forum to share thoughts, challenges and ideas

5. Building networking skills

6. An alternative to email

I especially like that Twitter can be accessed from a number of devices apart from the computer: iPhones, cell phones, smart devices and any Internet-enabled device.

Here is where I am not so smitten. In "mucking around" the site, I found that it is mostly social. People's "tweets" are for the most part, incosequential and irrelevant to me. I admit, at the moment, I am following some of my favourite bands to keep up to speed with concert listings and album releases. I'm also following Time magazine and a friend of mine. So I suppose that I'm using Twitter to satisfy personal needs, in which case, Twitter can be whatever you want it to be.

I came across a blog, teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk. Doug Belshaw had this to say about using Twitter with students:

I think Twitter could be ideal for reminding students about homework, trips and such things, especially as they can enter their mobile phone number to be alerted when one of their ‘friends’ updates their account. The advantage is that you don’t need to know the phone numbers of students to get messages onto their device: they are the ones who authorize their mobile phone from the website and they subscribe to your Twitter feed.

Is this not just an updated version of the good ol' class website?

Carol Cooper-Taylor has some intersting ideas about using Twitter in education. She writes that Twitter is great for opinion polls. The first thing that comes to mind are anticipation guides. Why not throw out a question to gauge where students are at, how much they think they know and what they feel on a specific topic or issue? Another great idea she has is instead of answering the question, "What are you doing?" get students to answer "What has your attention?" This could be a terrific pre-writing activity - great for generating ideas (and the boys will certainly benefit from this). Finally, Twitter allows parents to see what's going on in the classroom. Everything is open and transparent - nothing wrong with that.

I think I'll muck around some more and wait to render my verdict. I'm all for using this in a classroom setting if it's effective and meaningful.