Do you think Twitter can be an effective educational tool?

I read an article a year or so back about a teacher who used Twitter with her kindergarten class. Every day the kids would decide what to tell their parents about highlights of the day and they would write it as a group . That was appropriate for many of their writing abilities and she said parents really liked it because it eliminated the "What did you do today" - "I don't know" conversations that frustrate many parents.. She also walked around the room and lowered the blinds to reinforce the need for privacy when going online or using technology. It was a concrete example for young kids about making sure messages only go to their intended audience. I've never taught kinder, but I'd be open to that type of Twitter use. Reinforcing bad grammar and spelling with older students I would not endorse.

I really like the idea of Twitter lists and concise conversation or bullet-point facts catered toward assisting student learning, although I would also be aware that Twitter isn't exclusively an educational tool, so keeping students focused on it as a facilitator of educational knowledge or feedback could be a challenge.

Of course, and I think they would be right in thinking that aswell! I go for the old fashion way and it works for me!

Steve
smoke remedy

I think the bad habits it reinforces outweight the potential benefits. It's kind of like knowing that smoking relieves stress.

I use Edmodo. I control it with my classes and I can set up groups for specific classes, projects, clubs, etc. There is an APP for Edmodo and my students can stay connected to our classroom 24/7. For our recent state assessement tests, I sent our test takers a motivational message directly before the test. I linked motivational music with a special note. They love the facebook feel and the secure nature. It has gone over so well that students that I do not have in class are asking to be a part of our community. Its awesome and Twitter is so volatile and has recently receive a bad rep within our school. Edmodo is the answer!

My students and I use Twitter daily in all of my high school foreign language and history classes.

It's a great way to share ideas, archive conversations, create collaboratively built online reference bibliographies, and search the Net for the most current information and social attitudes on every topic imaginable.

We also use it as a lifeline on exams and to foster backchannel discussions during class discussion.

Lastly, we use Twitter to spark conversation about digital citizenship and 21st century issues facing young people.

Shelly Blake-Plock
www.teachpaperless.com

Each week a lot of people get together for #edchat, a live exchange of ideas on Twitter. Hundreds of people show up. It's great professional development. We are now trying to get one together for #artsed as a way to exchange ideas quickly and succinctly. The archive is filled with great resources for teachers and teaching artists. Join #artsed chat on Thursdays at 7pm ET

I use Edmodo.com instead of twitter as a classroom notification collaboration tool. It's private, secure, and kids can elect to recieve updates via email, text, or twitter. It has a "Facebook" feel that students like, and they often use it to communicate with each other outside of class, to ask questions or complement their more robust collaboration on our class wiki (we use wikispaces).

A Twitter-like lesson might be useful to get students to briefly summarize the main idea of a story or text, just giving the main idea. But then, we really don't need Twitter for that.

A Twitter-like lesson might be useful to get students to briefly summarize the main idea of a story or text, just giving the main idea. But then, we really don't need Twitter for that.