It seemed, to this edtech adventurer, that Twitter was the resounding hit of NECC, at least among the international gathering of edubloggers, and from the perspective of pure geek appeal. It was interesting to hear stories of folks who announced outstanding sessions in progress on their Twitters and having their Friends appear only moments later, searching for seats. I used it, via my mobile phone, to share with folks the exhibitor booths that offered chocolate to weary tech wanderers.
But the tool has continued to nag at me, especially as many of the twittersations have continued, and especially after a conversation I had with Linworth Publishing’s Cynthia Anderson on Monday. Over drinks (diet coke for me) we’d asked each other about what had impressed us at the conference and I commenced to describe Twitter — not an easy task. Up to then, I had not even considered instructional applications — still trying to come to grips with its overall basic functions. But Cynthia pushed me to explore some possibilities.
First of all, Twitter is probably not the tool to use. I’ve not thought it through, but I suspect that there might be security issues. But a Twitter type application in the classroom might work something like how Apple’s Francis Sheppard described it to me in an airport a couple of weeks ago, “micro blogging.” Children are reading in class and every ten minutes they are asked to interrupt their reading and post a Twitter post (no more than 140 characters) describing their current impressions, “Wait till you get to what happens in the cave!”
You might require students to have access to all of their classmates Twitter posts, but what if you required them to select Friends, and lets say that those three or four classmates are the only posts you have access to. Friends could change. Students could drop them, and add them at will, but an unspoken, but very real goal would be to earn as many Friends as you can, people who are interested in reading your Twitter messages. You’d want to write well and interestingly. It may be helpful to use pseudonyms so that RL popularity would not enter into the equation, or it may be best to keep real names. Twitters would only be available to classmates.
Or encourage students who are learning through a language other than their native tongue, to use Twitter to support each other. Allow them to use their native language to help each other where difficulties with their second language or culture arrise.
What do you think?
Should I consider adding a Twitter type feature to Class Blogmeister?
I’m not sure about adding it to Class Blogmeister, but here’s how I’m using twitter as an assistant principal and as an American Government teacher.
In my AP role, I’ll have twitter set up this year so that students, parents, and staff can sign up to get SMS messages on their phones:
http://twitter.com/ochs
I’ll send out a message at the beginning of each week with quick overview of what’s going on at the school.
This, by no means, will be my only form of communication but it will be a form; hopefully one that students, parents, and staff will find useful. I’m also hoping to use it as an impetus for my school to reevaluate it’s cell phone policy.
For the American Government class:
http://twitter.com/usgovernment
I’ll use it weekly for overview purposes, and periodically to let students know about events going on in the community and to remind them of important dates in the course.
I wrote about my getting twitter experience a while back if you’re interested. Now, how to get students to use this tool. Well, that’s what’s next.
Another option is to use Twitter for formative assessment. No need to spend tech dollars on “clickers” or ActiVotes when students have twitter and cell phones. Pose a question in class and watch as the answers twitter in.
I’m also planning on using Twitter to deliver homework reminders and homework assignments in the coming year.
It’s a great way to incorporate the cell phone as an educational tool rather than fearing it.
Microblogging is but one avenue, though the image of a teacher rapping her ruler and telling her students to twitter at the bell is not very inspiring. That is looking at the outgoing side of tweeting.
On the content gathering, there is use of RSS connected to twitter:
http://twitter.com/cglibrary
Or the use of other sources for accidental/ serendipity discovery. Someone is tweeting new books; what if the same was done for kids books?
http://twitter.com/TwitterLit
Or cultural connections? Or as Andy Carvin asked, Can Twitter save lives?
http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2007/03/can_twitter_save_lives.html
And I think Vicki Davis’s use recently on the horizon project was an excellent approach to having groups of people collaborating on projects keep each other up to date:
http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/Virtual+Worlds+Communication+Wiki
It’s just a matter of time as people start trying more ideas…. seeding the energy at NECC is exciting to follow.
We use Interact as our class intranet and it has a chat feature like twitter built in. We use real names only but we are passworded to get in to the whole site anyway. The kids love it, but for it to be a really effective we would need much greater access to computers. I’m just a bit confused about why this is any different to MSN, Google chat, skype etc. I understand the difference for public use of twitter but if you are going to lock it down to friends only (which I think we would want to do) then aren’t we just reducing it to a chat tool? Or am I missing something?
David,
I love this exploration. I set twitter up just for the conference, but it’s an interesting way to stay connected with people, keep updated on what they are writing or working on, etc.
And reading the posts above really makes it clear how many possibilities there are.
I think Glenn’s use is a great idea–I’m considering doing that for my library for events or new book titles.
I think adding it to Class Blogmeister would be a great dimension.
Add it, please. It would be cool to have on there.
While I don’t use Class Blogmeister, I do recommend it to others — and think it would be valuable to add a presence feature to the tool. In fact, I’d like to see such features added to lots of tools that I use — the only trick is that it’s got to be added in such a way as to be seamless. I can’t imagine diverting my attention from tthe task at hand to go to yet another screen — but if there were a regular update of tweets at the bottom of my working page, for example, I could see that being quite useful. In lots of applications.
I look forward to seeing what you do with this.
I tried to leave a comment on David Warlick’s redesigned blog, but alas it wasn’t accepted or worthy or something, so I’ll post here instead. David wondered whether he should put a “Twitter-like†app on Class Blogmiester – and I say do it (of course I’m not the one doing the programming).
I do several activities that require students to write short “notes†to each other (I blogged about it here{ http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=20). Its fun, it promotes writing as a fun activity, it fosters editing skills, each “note†is short but when you add up all the writing students do in 5 to 30 minutes it is pages. Anything that promotes writing is aces with me. My kids beg me, offer me money bribes … er… um … seem so excited by these activities that they MIGHT offer me bribes ; ), to play what they consider games. I’m sure that smarter teachers than I will come up with even better activities and uses for Twitter.
BTW – note Konrad Glogowski’s comment on my post – worth a read if you are considering doing a “Twitter-like” addition.
Twitter can be messy learning!
Hello,
Just came across your post today, and thought I could contribute this. I posted some suggestions for classroom applications for Twitter here:
http://apaceofchange.edublogs.org/2007/08/08/promoting-twitteracy-in-the-classroom/
Also, with regard to Bud’s request for a separate Twitter screen – the Firefox extension Twitterfox does just that – provides Twitter updates in a popup box from your statusbar.
I know this comment comes a little after the fact; hope you and others get to see it. I think Twitter has some interesting possibilities, and I invite folks to add to the list that I started back on my blog.
Thanks for sharing