Can Twitter be an effective tool in the classroom?

Screen Shot 2014-01-05 at 9.44.40 PMAfter my first Cohort21 meeting, I was instantly drawn to Twitter, but I began to question how Twitter could be an effective tool in the classroom. How could I use Twitter in the classroom to teach students 21st Century skills and encourage literacy (especially in only 140 characters)?

While my first post began with Dickens, it was actually Charles Dickens use of language, specifically his ability to use an economy of words,  that inspired me to teach students how to write, short, concise but deeply descriptive sentences. Then it was through Twitter that I found @VeryShortStory that sparked an idea. I would have students write and publish their stories on Twitter; we called them “Tweetlitures”. But how would I assess a short story of only 140 characters?

First, students read excerpts from Dickens and I explained to them that we would try to emulate his style and usage of language by writing economically. Then, students outlined the five key elements of their short story (plot, characters, conflicts, setting, theme and point of view) that they wanted to convey to the reader. This became the source of their rubric; a peer must be able to identify the five key elements of their short story from their Tweetliture. Once students outlined their stories, they wrote and published them on Twitter. Students then used Twitter to respond to their peers Tweetlitures and provided suggestions.

Overall, I was very happy with the way this lesson progressed and the students responsible use of Twitter. The best part of all was I was provided the opportunity to teach students how to use technology as a learning tool instead of a social tool. I now maintain a class Twitter page to post links to interesting articles, follow discussion between peers and suggest readings. Twitter has also allowed students to connect with each other, share resources and continue the classroom discussion outside the classroom. I am very interested to hear about how you use Twitter in the classroom and whether or not you think Twitter can be an effective tool in 21st Century learning. Next, I want to try to connect students to authors via Twitter.

8 thoughts on “Can Twitter be an effective tool in the classroom?

  1. Hi Sarah,
    This is a great post! Congrats on the success of Twitter in the Classroom. Writing economically like Dickins…love it! This is helping students REDEFINE (#SAMR) how they demonstrate and engage with the learning, so well done! Twitter is a very powerful source, and to get the connections you’re looking for, a member from last year’s Cohort just posted to our Diigo Group on a twitter chats.

    I think that the way you’ve used it is very effective, and now I would encourage you to have the students use Twitter to connect with authors by just following them first, and interacting with them that way. Here are two sources:

    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/10-awesome-authors-on-twitter/

    http://www.socialmediadelivered.com/2013/02/18/top-20-authors-to-follow-on-twitter/

    I’ve used Twitter in the classroom before as well…here’s my thoughts: http://www.ourkids.net/blog/live-election-day-with-greenwood-college-school-16090/#comments Unfortunately, the archive from OurKids has disappeared, but hopefully you get the idea. You could host a tweet-barrage, where you tweet at an author asking questions, quoting them, etc… until they respond (which may not be for a while!)…

    Just some thoughts, and I hope it helps,
    garth.

    1. Hi Garth,

      Thanks so much for the comments. I have followed up with the links that you have suggested and they are great. In addition, I think that I am going to encourage my students to connect to the authors of their independent novel study. I will let you know how this goes later on.

  2. I’m inspired by this idea…and I’m wondering how I can adopt some of this for my own classroom.

    How do you get around potential privacy concerns? Do each of your students have their own accounts? Does the school have any monitoring rights? Do the students use fake names? Were there any questions from your IT department?

    I love the idea of connecting students to a larger conversation (and yes, definitely very much aligns with 21st Century pedagogy)…but how do you do that with safety in mind?

    1. Celeste,

      I had many of the same questions prior to introducing Twitter to my students. However, after speaking with my IT department and several other teachers who use Twitter in the classroom, I found out that many schools (mine included) did not have a policy around this. (As technology in education increases this is something that they will have to consider addressing). Each of my students (except one) had their own Twitter accounts and were allowed to choose their own names. Students were encouraged not to put personal photos up or information about where they live or go to school.

      I also sent a letter home to parents explaining how Twitter was going to be used in the classroom, and the pedagogy that supports it. I did receive one email back from a parent who did not want their child to participate as a result of misuse of social networking in the past. For this student I was able to create a link on our course page where they could follow and comment on other tweets without having a Twitter account of her own. This seemed to work.

      Privacy is a major issue and one that needs to be carefully considered prior to initiating an assignment. I don’t pretend to have any of the answers but continue to try to navigate the unknown waters of technology in the classroom as I go (but that is for another post 🙂

  3. Sarah,

    We are really looking forward to your action plan post and the area of teaching and learning you would like to explore. Remember that before publishing your post be sure to add an action plan category and tag to your post.

    Refresher How-To Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3QG8WcSPoU

    Also

    * Be sure to read at least one other blog and comment on it.

    * Don’t Stress… Your Action Plan post can be in the form of a question, musings, or concrete task. It can be short, it can be long………it just has to be meaningful to YOU!

    Go flipped library!!

    Justin

  4. Hi Sarah,

    My Action Plan focuses on Twitter use in the classroom as well. Reading your blog I am wondering if your students use twitter for only educational purposes? Do they have separate accounts? Are the accounts private?

    There are a lot of logistical hoops I am trying to navigate.

    I love the idea of connecting to authors. I think that people are quite welcome to these types of things thanks to their comfort connecting and working on twitter.

    – Bart

    1. Hi Bart, I was surprised to learn that of my 30 Gr. 9 students, only two already had Twitter accounts. Of these two, both students were using Twitter to post social updates. Prior to creating educational Twitter accounts we discussed the role of social media in our lives; the difference between social networks and learning networks, our digital footprint and privacy on the net. After this discussion, students created Twitter accounts using their school email- separate from their personal email. This Twitter account was designate as a learning network and not a social network. Something that I found helpful was setting up their Twitter accounts during class and encouraging “private” accounts. Once their accounts were created students added each other and followed three authors for homework. I hope this helps. I look forward to discussing this more with you at our next F2F.

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