By Teachers, For Teachers
Teenagers love to talk. Venture into any high school classroom and chattering abounds. Oftentimes, the chatter is about instruction and in a class of 25 or so students, we can often miss some of the most insightful or interesting comments since there is so much competition for “air space.”
What if we could keep a seamless record of students’ ideas and thoughts about a classroom activity that actually enhanced and deepened the learning experience?
There is a tool for this: Twitter.
In our increasingly linguistically-diverse classes, tweeting affords students the opportunity to comment in 140 characters. This format fosters precision, revision, and editing since the tweet is a short written expression that is instantaneous and reaches a huge audience.
Imagine a high school classroom where there is a discussion about a novel or video and the students are able to respond immediately. There are additional advantages to teaching our students how to ‘tweet” in class.
To Tweet or Not to Tweet...in Class?
Our students are well versed and expect to use technology as a means to learn about and understand the world. Yet, as teachers, we are often hesitant to encourage and teach our students how to use a web-based tool like Twitter in the classroom.
Be bold and give twitter a try. Once you get past the social media stigma in schools, you may find a free teaching tool that gives students a voice.
Do you use twitter or other social media in the classroom? Share in the comments section!