Twitter in the Classroom

On the website Educational Technology and Mobile Learning I found a great list of educational uses for Twitter. The list was broken up into five categories: Communication, Organization, Resources, Writing Skills, and Twitter Exercises. The more common educational uses for Twitter were listed such as sending out mass announcements, providing feedback and communicating with parents. There were also many ideas that had not occurred to me. For example, under communication there was a suggestion to use Twitter as ambient office hours so that teachers can be more accessible to students. Under organization a suggestion I thought could be really useful to me in the future was using Twitter to recap the day's lesson. A recommendation under resources was to follow Twitter news streams in the target language. For writing skills an idea I liked was assigning a daily or weekly word game on Twitter. Then under Twitter exercises I thought another good idea was to give bonus points for students who use Twitter to participate in discussions that they might feel uncomfortable to join in class.

A second article I read addressed how to establish a Twitter routine in the classroom. The author was writing specifically about grades K-8 who cannot establish their own Twitter accounts but I think the information can be adapted to other age groups. The visual roadmap graphic was really informative. It starts out by pointing out why teachers should Tweet with their class for example to communicate, to practice writing skills and to develop a sense of digital citizenship. The roadmap then moves on to how to familiarize students with the Twitter scene, what it means to be a follower, how to follow someone, and how to evaluate the feeds of others. Finally the visual shows how using Twitter can encourage students to use both lower and higher order thinking skills. I found this graphic very helpful in visualizing the process of introducing and utilizing Twitter in the classroom.

Twitterchatting

I followed the #eltchat on Twitter on Wednesday morning. The majority of teachers who attended the chat were from England but there were also teachers who were living and teaching abroad in places like Saudi Arabia. I thought that having teachers with varied backgrounds helped to stimulate the conversation and produced diverse observations and suggestions. The topic of the chat was the importance of the starting and ending of a lesson. What I liked about the chat was that it was informal, that anyone was welcome and could post a comment or idea. Also, I found that several participants had some interesting ideas of how to organize the beginning and ending of class. There were also some links and references given to reading material and resources on the topic. I found the tone of the chat to be very positive, welcoming and open to ideas. There was a lot of positive feedback and encouragement between participants.

I will say though that the format of a Twitterchat is somewhat confusing and hard to keep up with. There were multiple conversations going on at once so it could be somewhat hard to follow one train of thought. Also not everyone followed the specific questions that were posted by the moderator and a few participants would go off subject and make jokes. Due to the rapid nature of the chat sometimes the new question that was posted was not seen and people kept posting about the last question or they did not like/understand a question and ignored it. Ultimately though a Twitterchat is an informal venue so that is what is nice about it, participants can comment on what they want and say what they want without too much censorship. I liked the experience and can see that it could be useful for professional development and for networking. There were many useful ideas expressed in a short period of time and I felt that there were things that I could try to implement in class.

Connectivism Theory and the Modern Learner

Through reading George Siemens' article on Connectivism, A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, I started to envision learners as modern day hunter-gatherers. I say this because I think learners are constantly on the hunt for information and knowledge on-line, on databases, on social media, etc. This hunt can be seen as a means of survival where the learner must stay current in their field in order to remain relevant and ultimately to remain employed. Siemens states "When knowledge, however, is needed, but not known, the ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements becomes a vital skill. As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses." The implication for our learners is that they need to develop the skills to hunt for knowledge so that when they encounter something that they do not know the answer to they have the resources to search out the answer.

Unlike some hunter-gatherers in the past, today's learners are not out hunting alone. Instead they can build networks of connections to other individuals and as a result they can increase their knowledge. In a video titled The Changing Nature of Knowledge Siemens discusses "The Network model of learning…the learners themselves, the connections they form with each other, the connections they form with databases, with other sources of knowledge is really the primary point of learning." I like this idea that these connections are learner initiated, that each individual creates their own network which is unique to them and their experiences and interests. If learners are encouraged to build networks while in a school/classroom setting which are relevant to them they can continue to use and expand upon them in their life outside the classroom.

Educating for the Future

While watching the Future Learning Documentary video I was impressed by the numerous innovative ideas presented by the interviewees. They advocated for the use of technology in the classroom including video games and iPads which is not a revolutionary idea itself but they called for a revolution of a different sort. A revolution in motivating students to learn, to present information within context, to blend learning and play, and to make the learning experience less rigid. I think these are all very valid suggestions and that technology can be a tool to help accomplish them. One observation that I really connected with was made by Sugata Mitra who suggests that a skill that students should be learning now to better prepare them for their future is the ability to conduct information research on-line. I think this is a very important skill not only in the forum of higher education but in one's private life in order to be better informed about the world.

Another video I watched was "Did you Know" which presented many interesting statistics about technology, its uses around the world and its role in both education and employment. These statistics and observations help to put the modern situation in historical perspective. The video raised many questions such as how technology has changed the job market and how this relates to educating today's youth. It made me think about how the United States can remain competitive with countries such as India and China who have such large populations. Something else I observed was that the video mentioned the vast quantity of information available through the internet and technology but nothing was said about the quality of this information. This brought to mind the Future Learning Documentary video and reinforced the need for students to learn how to perform on-line research. With so much information available students need to have the skills to determine what is the more reliable source.