Twitter for Classroom and Professional Development

Twitter is no longer a social networking site for following your favorite celebrity; instead you can communicate and share ideas with professional educators and students from all over the world, and even engage students in your own classroom!

Jeff Dunn describes all of the benefits of using Twitter in the classroom in his article, “The Ultimate Guide to Using Twitter in Education.” Dunn writes that students have the ability to communicate through a medium where they feel more comfortable to express themselves freely whereas in the classroom they may feel shy and afraid to speak up.  Dunn writes, “Dr. Monica Rankin of the University of Texas at Dallas was pleasantly surprised when her experiment with Twitter began pulling more students into discussion. ‘It’s been really exciting because, in classes like this, you’ll have three people who talk about the discussion material, and so to actually have 30 or 40 people at the same time talking about it is really interesting,’ said Megan Malone, Teaching Assistant to Dr. Monica Rankin’s United States history course

In a second article, “The Teacher’s Guide to Twitter,” by Edudemic, it shares ideas for connecting to Twitter in the classroom and ideas for professional development. In the classroom, teachers can communicate effectively with students and parents inside and outside of the classroom, students can work collaboratively with in the classroom on projects, and students can practice and learn a foreign language. “Using a service like twitterlearn or just practicing conversation skills with other Twitterers around the globe, students can practice a foreign language.”

Through personal experience with Twitter, it is important to network and communicate with the professionals in your field in order to make the most of the material and knowledge that is available.  The article says, “Follow some of the people you find interesting, exchange ideas and conversations with others using the #hashtag conversations you’re involved in, and when appropriate, take it to the next step: connect with them – either via other social media, email, or at a conference you’re both attending.” After following some educators in my field, I found that they shared links to other resources on sites like Scoop.it!, and I was able to grab additional classroom tools and teaching ideas.