Twitter: is it really worth the effort?

I have been struggling with practical uses for Twitter in the classroom. When I open my Twitter session, I get tongue tied. Why does anyone really need to know what I am doing at that particular moment? Is this just a waste of time, not to mention as boring as watching paint dry? Is anyone using Twitter for practical educational purposes?

I happily came across an article written for Wired Campus, an e-magazine that reports on 'education technology news from around the web'. This article - the text of which follows this post - discusses practical uses in the classroom. One recommendation is to require students to post a short message regarding a particular topic discussed in class. I agree with the author's suggestion that the immediacy of Twitter creates a feeling of community in a particular class. One professor noted - in a comment attached to this article - that he feels 'closer' to students who follow his twitter and participate on their own.

January 28, 2008
A Professor's Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter at first seemed like a bad idea to David Parry, an assistant professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas. For those not in the know, Twitter is a service that lets you micro-blog your life by dashing out very short notes (140 characters max) to a select group of friends or other subscribers, who can receive them as text messages on their cell phones. Mr. Parry’s first instinct was that Twittering would just encourage students to speak in sound bites and self-obsess.

But then he gave it a try, and he now sees Twitter as a useful classroom-communication tool.

How is that? He outlines several “Ways to use Twitter in Academia” on a post on the blog AcademHack.

Last semester he required the 20 students in his “Introduction to Computer-Mediated Communication” course to sign up for Twitter and to send a few messages with the service each week as part of a writing assignment. He also invited his students to follow his own Twitter feed, in which he sometimes writes several short thoughts each day. Yesterday morning, for instance, he sent out a message that read: “Reading, prepping for grad class, putting off running until it warms up a bit.” Last week, one of his messages included a link to a Web site he wanted his students to check out.

The posts from students also mixed the mundane with the useful. One student twittered that she just bought a pet rabbit. Another noted that a topic from the class was being discussed on a TV-news report.

The immediacy of the messages helped the students feel like more of a community, Mr. Parry said in an interview Monday. “It was the single thing that changed the classroom dynamics more than anything I’ve ever done teaching,” he said.

One downside: Some students have to pay a small fee for each text message they receive, and that means all this Twittering can add up to real money. Students can avoid such charges by setting their Twitter account so that they receive e-mail messages instead of text messages, but that eliminates much of the point of the service.

Why Wiki?

So what the heck is a wiki? Why would you want to use this particular technology in your classroom? A wiki is a collaborative website that allows anyone to input, revise, and collaborate to create an web accessible source of information on virtually any topic. According to the online Free Dictionary, http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/, Wiki is an acronym for "What I Know Is" .

Some wikis commonly used in an educational setting include Wikipedia.com, schoolcomputing.wikia.com, schools.wikia.com, and schoolpedia.com. The danger in wiki use from an educational standpoint is the reader's inability to validate information as it is contributed from a variety of sources, some legit, some not so legit.

You may choose to use wikis such as Wikipedia to teach your students critical analysis skills. Ask them to research a particular topic on Wikipedia and on a typically legit resource such as Grolier Online or Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Ask your students to evaluate the information provided on both sites. Have them critique the content, the ability to edit, the legitimacy of the information presented. This exercise can be invaluable in demonstrating to your students that Wikipedia, while offering a wealth of information, is not necessarily a resource that you would allow for a research project.

Check out more educational uses for wikis in the K-12 Classroom at the Wiki in a K-12 classroom wiki.

Collaborating with wikis

I have found that wikis are invaluable for groups that are working together on a common project. Every April, the AIMS (Association of Independent Maryland Schools) Technology Committee, of which I am a member, hosts a Technology Leaders Retreat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

For many years, we planned the event - keynotes, synergy sessions, calendar - using a hodgepodge of methods. Face to face meetings were held once a month, handwritten notes were kept and referred to in subsequent meetings. All information of use to the group was circulated via e-mail. Needless to say, this was not the most efficient method of planning a complex annual event.

About a year ago, our committee created a wiki on schoolcomputing.wikia.com to compile all of our ideas and to summarize discussion in our meetings. We refer often to the current year's wiki during our meeting - keeping it open on one laptop - and after meetings when there are updates regarding speakers, facilitators and the like.

The collaborative nature of the wiki has ultimately allowed a geographically dispersed group of 10 technology administrators to effectively plan a 3 day retreat for 135 educators without too much pain and suffering! Our wiki from last year's retreat can be found at http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/AIMS_2008_Retreat

RSS: A Practical Guide for Educators

I love Will Richardson! I enjoy reading his blog, 'Weblogg-ed' ..(see my blog list below!) and receive almost daily entries via the site's RSS feed.

Will has created a very useful RSS guide for educators. RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators Check it out.

Twitter

What is Twitter? How might I use it in the classroom?

According to the Twitter website, 'Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?'

This is a type of social networking site that is simple, uncomplicated and truly does ask/answer the question, what are you doing? This can be a useful tool in the classroom if you want to create a running dialog on a particular subject that does not run on and on and on... Twitter limits comments to 140 characters so that your students are forced to choose their words carefully.

Check out this great resource for Twitter uses in education: Twitter in the Classroom and my personal Twitter page, http://twitter.com/skearney

RSS Feeds

What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as web log (aka blog) entries, news headlines or podcasts. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually. RSS is the equivalent of home delivery of newspapers or your own personal wire service. Websites that offer an RSS feed typically display the following logo:




RSS feeds are best collected, filtered and read using an aggregator. I use SharpReader to collect all of my RSS feeds. Rather than visit each blog to which I subscribe, I just open my aggregator and read all the latest blog entries

Wikipedia offers a list of popular aggregators at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_feed_aggregators

RSS can be particularly useful in an educational setting. Teachers may choose to subscribe to blogs from other educators regarding their particular subject area. They may also choose to subscribe to topic specific blogs for a specific unit or topic of interest. Daily blog entries can be collected in the aggregator and shared with the class - perhaps as a warmup exercise or discussion starter.