Our students are already using these social sites and it's time we showed them how to use them responsibly and educationally.

I'd love to use Twitter in my classroom. What a great tool for sharing my student's knowledge. Even better, getting real time news and information that is directly related to the days lesson. Much more timely than Google or Bing. Plus it adds a primary source of information to draw from.

I started using Twitter to follow the space shuttle missions. I used the smart board to project the site when I wasn't using the board for something else. Kids are great multi-taskers. This actually got the attention of one of my students who didn't care about anything all year until he read the tweets from the astronauts in space.

I have been thinking on how to use Twitter all summer. I think I am going to create a teacher name twitter account and have the kids follow with their questions, comments, etc.... If you have any other ideas please share.

My twitter name is jeanierobinson

I absolutely think that Twitter can be used in the classroom. I plan on using it this upcoming year as a summarizing tool. My science students will summarize the previous days lessons, then post those summaries to Twitter. This will not only help them remember what we learned but also give parents a way to follow what is going on in the classroom.

I cannot expect to utilize Twitter as classroom tool with students yet since the county sees insufficient filtering to keep students safe. A good example is the number of recent spam followers wishing to share " pics". How can educators address that disappointing fact? I have used Twitter and it is one of the most efficient professional sharing tools I use as an educator.

I cannot expect to utilize Twitter as classroom tool with students yet since the county sees insufficient filtering to keep students safe. A good example is the number of recent spam followers wishing to share " pics". How can educators address that disappointing fact? I have used Twitter and it is one of the most efficient professional sharing tools I use as an educator.

I teaching grade 9 language arts and 9-12 media arts at Cold Lake High School, Cold Lake, AB.

I have used Twitter in the classroom and it was very productive. There are other tools out there if teachers use it for backchannel, and I would recommend they be used instead (Chatzy, etc). Overall, it was great to have this powerful tool in the classroom. I tweet homework and will be inviting parents to follow our class account in Twitter in the fall!

http://tinyurl.com/nhybt9

I am currently experimenting with posting guided reading questions and answers on Twitter-one trade book at a time. The size limit really forces you to chunk information and focus on one question/skill at a time, which is good for elementary teachers. Thinking in such a tight space also helps you to organize your questions, and make sure that you have covered all of the comprehensions skills – literal, inferential, elements of story, etc… I decided to prepare questions in a spreadsheet (where you can sort/check by question type) and copy/paste into Twitter.

Can anyone tell me how they are taking attendance with Twitter?

From Sara Ring, the writer of the poll:

Here is a teacher's blog in which he mentions using Twitter to take attendance, with students marking themselves "present."

This Huffington Post article makes mention of this teacher's practice, too.

Hope this helps!

Betty Ray
Edutopia.org Community Manager