I learned about Twitter at NYCATE last year. I have been twittering on and off since. I only follow 20 people selectively but even those 20 are tough to keep up with and rarely offer any great new resources. Or offer too many that aren't even usable by real classrom teachers or is way over their heads (quoting a previous recent discussion here in 2.0) I find this forum the best way to truly learn and be engaged.

I am officailly kicking the Twitter Habit today. Who else has Twitter opinions? Anyone want to join my rebellion?

Tags: 2.0, micro-blogging, twitter, web

Views: 232

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I though the same at first .... but now its invaluable .. it takes a while to build up your network ... but I use it daily when seeking resources - and asking my network questions (lately revolving around Opensim) -- combines wth Tweetscan & Twitterific as the client I don't go a day without pinging my network for answers and harnessing their collective intelligence
Collective inteligence can't be found in 150 CHARACTERS.
Its 140 characters *lol* .... and you could not be more wrong in your assumption ... you would be amazed what a chorus in your network can reveal ... but it took me a while to appreciate it Ill admit.
Hmmm. I'm working on finding ways to streamline my life and make the stuff we keep more useful. I'm actually looking into increasing my use of Twitter. Our tech group is spread out over several buildings and it seems like we are less connected than we used to be. We have weekly meetings, but invariably someone can't make it or forgets something. We're having a hard time keeping up with each other, who's working on what, etc. I set up a grouptweet account and I'm hoping everyone will post 2/3 times a day. Just a quick "here's what I'm working on right now." This will help us keep up our communication and it is far less painful than asking people to summarize their day in an email!

On the other hand, this is new, so maybe it won't work at all! I'd welcome any thoughts.
Sarah
Surprisingly, I totally love Twitter as well, and I really did not get it at first either! A couple of things I have learned. First, I do not make friends with everyone who makes friends with me. I first look to see if we have anything in common that I want to follow. I try to really have the people I am following be those I want to get info or hear from. Second, I am not on all day. I try to check it in the morning and at night, or when I post something on my site. Invariably every day I get some useful info or an enjoyable moment with just a few minutes of time invested. I think it is amazing.

I agree with the other comments as to its uses. It is certainly different and takes a bit of getting used to but the potential is great.

Sue
Ok, besides Elise, who else is a teacher in this discussion in a Public School?
I am. High school social studies.
I'm in a public middle school and I've used twitter in the classroom with success.
Hi Laura,

What does that look like? Do you use it with all of your students? Or do you use it for communicating with parents? What subject area do you teach? I still struggle to see how to weave twitter into the daily learning lives of 90 students!
I only used it with my preAP language arts class of 7th graders. I've discovered that they were the ones most likely to have cell phones available to them (the district blocked the twitter.com) for class use.

Some parents follow me on twitter just to see what's going on in class and to follow class discussions. I had one parent who read along with us and also contributed to class discussions.

We used twitter in literature circles. Instead of responding orally or through journals, students responded to literature (Anne Frank) on twitter. I had a tweetdeck set up so students could view all responses in class.

Several students figured out that I would also respond before and after school and would leave me questions about the reading (some of them after midnight or before 5AM!) to respond to.
I knew my wording would get people stirred up. Meaningless, no. Too much. Perhaps. Would there be as many school shootings today if the media couldn't easily put it on an endless loop like they can in today's world? There is such a thing as too much information...

If you have that much time to be on the computer, then maybe you need to spend more time actually doing. I know, I'm sounding snobbish, but I need my sources to have authentic roots...Anything can be a great idea, in theory, but in practice, its a whole new world.

Live Simply.
I don't spend much time on twitter. Less than 5 minutes a day is all I need and I still have time to do plenty. I tweet with people who I want to hear from and let the rest of the world follow me. In most cases in less than 5 I have walked away with something useful or a smile. I choose who I follow. I don't follow people who post nothing but "drinking coffee" and "taking the dog for a walk" unless they are really people I know, because that is not what I am looking for; I look for people with similar interests and Twitter has allowed me to see a very wide network in a very short snippet of time.

It is not the only place I network. I am here, on pownce, and a couple of other nings which I visit sporatically. I have them all set up so I get emails in certain conversations so I don't have to go back every day, as I don't have time for that. I check in ever couple to see what is going on.

I teach social studies inclusion at the secondary level, have a life, and a website with all of my podcast work that I create for my students ... www.masterymaze.com. I recently started iPod Educators here on Ning.

It's like anything else.....It fits some and not others...No generalizations can really be made here. For me it is very helpful. I have learned to manage all of it, enjoy it , and it is part of my routine. With todays tech you really can if you are interested in it. I have the internet on my phone, give it a look when I have a free minute or two in line at the store, wherever. For me, it's not that big of a deal.

I am just a middle aged teacher (not young and living on my space) interested in using the tools to reach my students. These resources really help me do that, and also help me understand their world as well so I can better utilize it. It has transformed my way of thinking and teaching in many ways, while helping me keep in touch with people I would have never been able to follow all over the world. Pretty amazing to me..

Sue

RSS

Report

Win at School

Commercial Policy

If you are representing a commercial entity, please see the specific guidelines on your participation.

Badge

Loading…

Follow

Awards:

© 2024   Created by Steve Hargadon.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service