My second recipe tried and tested from the Web 2.0 Recipe Book was Twitter.
Twitter is an online social network that asks participants to update their “followers” as to what they are doing in fewer than 140 characteristics. Some “twits” choose to “tweet” many times a day to hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of followers. (Kist, 2010, p. 3)
Twitter is a smorgasbord with so many choices of dishes one gets a feeling of not knowing where in the world to start. And as smorgasbords go the dishes range in taste. It will take some attempts at the buffet in order to get exactly what you are looking for. Some of the choices
may look appealing but turn out to be less than appetizing. Others are surprisingly delicious. Richardson (2010) suggests to “think about Twitter for yourself first. It’s a great place to connect and learn with others who share your passion” (p. 89).
As a first timer to Twitter I was very hesitant to set up yet another account, another password and have one more thing to check and read through. So in taking Richardson’s advice I decided
to use it as a Professional Learning Network. As smorgasbords go, I decided to start with a few small portions. You can always go back for seconds and try something else.
Learning about Twitter has been enlightening. To get started all you need to do is set up a free account and you are in. Once in Twitter you then select people to follow. Now this sounds ease enough, however in my experience this was and still is the most challenging part of Twitter. For my first course I decided to follow the people that were suggested by our course instructors. As I had decided to use it as a Professional Learning Network I did not want to follow friends or celebrities. Once you have selected people to follow, Twitter will then suggest more followers for you.
Going for the second course becomes trickier. After making your selections to follow others, others on Twitter may select to follow you. The more active you are on Twitter the more likely you are to have more followers. One can also set up their profile that includes a photo, a quick description and details of oneself and links to ones webpage. The intentions of keeping things simple and limited tend to snowball and before the evening is over you have tried everything at the smorg.
Through researching and experimenting with Twitter I believe that I have acquired the basic skills. I have made a few tweets and I have used hashtags to answer random questions or phrases. I have followed Twitter to find a weekly article on technology to post on my blog and I have been present for a real-time chat.
The smorgasbord keeps coming out with new dishes and by now you are on your third and fourth course. TweetChat has been one dish that I have just not been able to wrap my head around. Within Twitter there are many opportunities to have TweetChats, real-time conversations with others on a certain topic. TweetChats have become increasingly popular. Its popularity has led Twitter to produce a detailed spreadsheet listing a detailed schedule for TweetChats.
I have researched into #elemchat. This is a TweetChat that happens once a week, chatters vote on topics that they would like to chat about the following session. Things become more intertwined, as it appears that #elemchat is a pathway to the wiki TwitterChat. I have viewed the wiki and discovered that if you miss a TwitterChat you don’t have to worry, there is a summary of all the chats and each one has been transcribed.
The final dish, a dessert, TweetDeck This is an application that you can download onto your desktop so that you don’t miss a tweet from Twitter and you also do not need to use Twitter.com. It is a way to organize all your tweets and other peoples’ tweets. For me it seems I have consumed enough I cannot eat another bite. Perhaps if I was an avid chocolate lover or Twitter user I would make room for Tweet Deck but at the moment I am full. To me it is just more calories that I really don’t need, information overload.
Positives
•easy to find people to follow once you have selected a few
•many articles are posted all the time
•can actively participate in real-time chats based on different topics of interest
•Twitter has a spreadsheet that shows all the real-time chats that take place
Negatives
•a lot of tweets without any educational information
•takes time to set up a learning community network that is successful
•no real face time with anyone
•information overload
Professional/Classroom Use
Messner (2009) shares the practicality of Twitter, “it’s a tool that we take advantage of when it fits our teaching and learning needs and when special opportunities arise” (para. 13). Twitter in the classroom is a growing trend. After learning about Twitter and its uses I feel that it has very limited benefits within my personal classroom. As a current grade three teacher I would find it difficult to see the value in incorporating the tool into the classroom. The most obvious reason being that the students are only 8-10 years old and the school’s policy does not allow the students to bring cell phones to school. If cell phones were allowed there are few activities that incorporates Twitter. One activity could be a tweet used as an exit card, students would tweet one thing they learned or have a questions about from their learning. Messner (2009) suggests an interesting activity, to have a TweetChat with an author during class time. “The kids are glued to the screen, where #yeschat continues” (para. 3).
I can personally use Twitter to enhance my knowledge of technology in the classroom, for lesson ideas and to make contact with other teachers around the globe. I will be able to use Twitter as a stepping-stone or a guide to professional development. Ferguson (2010) states it so wonderfully for me, as a reluctant Twitter user, “the wonderful thing about Twitter is that you can simply follow people and not say a word. Just read the tweets, click on links to blogs, and learn” (p. 14).
Evidence of Learning
My Tweets
Who I Follow
Who Follows Me
References
Ferguson, H. (2010). Joining the flock. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), 12-15.
Kist, W. (2010). The socially networked classroom: Teaching in the new media age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Messner, K. (2009). Pleased to tweet you: Making a case for Twitter in the classroom. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6708199.html
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
