"It's a great way to tell people what's going on in my life," she said, "and to find out what's going on in there's." I had no use for this; I already had Facebook and texting for keeping in touch with people. Not to mention, I really don't care who made an omelette for breakfast or how quickly someone got home from work.
I asked another friend the same question. "It's a great way to know what's going on with celebrities," was her response. I had no need for this either; I'm not the sort to really care, let alone actively keep up with, the lives of famous people, with the exception of maybe an author or two. I use Goodreads for that, though.
I asked one final friend. He told me, "I can search for posts using hashtags. It's funny to see what all was posted with #worstgiftever or #momjeans." I didn't have an over-abundance of time for meaningless searches on the internet. Plus I didn't understand the purpose of hashtags, aside from making a person sound stupid when they use them in conversation, as Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake so eloquently show us in the video below!
So I continued my life without the use of Twitter, never knowing all that I was missing!
When we started this class and I saw that I was going to need a Twitter account, I was very excited. I knew there had to be a reason so many people were using Twitter that had nothing to do with celebrities, breakfast foods, or funny hashtags.
I couldn't wait to get started on the chapter involving Twitter in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson. Reading this chapter, I learned many things about Twitter that my friends just couldn't explain to me. It is not just a means for keeping in touch with people, it is a "microblog" for people to share their experiences and their versions of the world. It isn't just a way to keep track of celebrities, it is a way to keep track of anyone with a similar interest or profession.
Most importantly, the hashtag actually serves several really important purposes, and not just in Twitter (although I will only discuss its uses for Twitter). By labeling important posts with certain hashtags, users can sort through their own posts. Users can also share a common hashtag, and then they can see what everyone using that tag is saying about it.
Twitter also has several professional uses as well, the most obvious being using it to update students and parents about things going on in the classroom--reminders about homework assignments, test dates, etc. One more subtle idea is to use Twitter to keep track of professional resources, links, blogs, and news. Just simply say something short about it and provide the link and Twitter will do the rest. If you want to find that resource again, just scroll through your Tweets until you find it, or label it with a hashtag for easy sorting.
As an English teacher, I have done a "Tweet" assignment in the past during a narrative writing unit. Students were required to write a personal narrative in under 140 characters, while still following certain criteria. The students loved it, although we couldn't actually access Twitter because it was blocked from our network. These are only a few ways it could be used for classroom purposes; there are of course many, many more.
Sources:
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. (2013, September 24). #Hashtag with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (Third ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.
Angela,
ReplyDeleteI love twitter for all of the things that you explained. What I really love is how I can stay connected to educators and find out what they are doing in their classrooms. If I ever have a question I can tweet it to professionals and have an answer.
Another great part of twitter that you should look into is the chat feature. There is a chat for everyone! I use http://tweetchat.com to participate and watch the chat. Even if I don't tweet it is great to follow. My favorite is #titlechat hosted by Colby Sharp and Donalyn Miller on the last Sunday of every month at 8. They pose questions and people reply by using the hashtag.
Here is a site that has lots of great chats you can check out: http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/09/23/13-twitter-chats-for-educators.aspx
Lacey
Nice post about twitter! I was in the same boat of not taking to twitter because of all the Kardashian and celeb type tweeting. I didn't think it would be anything I'd be interested in or use, since I had facebook. As you mentioned, twitter can be another great resource for professional or hobbyists to connect, share information, and trade resources.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, I still haven't really gotten into the twitterverse just yet, but I look forward to using it as a resource for teaching and a couple of my hobbies that require indepth knowledge from a variety of resources to be successful.
Lacey, thanks for the great resources of the tweetchat, titlechat and the twitter chats for educators. I'm a huge advocate of share and share alike with my fellow teachers I work with, but this opens the door to collaborate with teachers around the country or even the world!
As a tech-startup entrepreneur, I use Twitter extensively, but I've really come to dislike much of the Twittersphere. Why? Well, I was hoping to use Twitter to be able to organically connect with shoppers and fellow entrepreneurs in the fashion-technology industry. Instead, I find myself flooded with a ridiculous amount of "internet marketers" who are trying to sell me something as followers. It ruins the natural, organic building of a following. That's my two cents on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteAngela,
ReplyDeleteWow you took my exact feelings about Twitter and wrote it down! I joined twitter about a year ago, when I started attending EdCamps. The technology teacher at my school introduced me to this concept of an "unconference". EdCamps are basically a way for educators to come together from all of the state to share what they are up to currently. Nothing is planned in advance, and people just start volunteering to host sessions. The great thing, is that people tweet about their expereicnes and you can make connections with educators in your field from all over the state.
When we started this class, I was like finally I will see how Twitter can be useful in the classroom. What I have discovered so far, is that using Twitter on a computer is so much easier to understand, than on a mobile device. Honestly, just logging in on my laptop made so much more sense. I love your examples for using Twitter in the classroom, especially for updating parents about homework.
Kaitlyn,
DeleteEdCamps sound really interesting. I'm always looking for more ways to connect to and learn from other educators. Is there a link you could post with more information about them? I'd really like to check them out :-)
-Angela
I love the hashtag video!! Jimmy Fallon and JT are absolutely hilarious. This skit always cracks me up.
ReplyDeleteThe hashtag humor is so true because on any type of social media you see people that constantly overuse hashtags. I didn't realize until a few months ago that the hashtags actually were used as tags to connect people that were tagging similar things. I heard about twitter during my undergrad too, but never found it interesting because I really didn't want to know everything about everybody every second of every day. However, it has become an increasingly used tool in the world from celebrity use, to education use, to just the random person telling us exactly what they are doing ALL THE TIME.
I really like your idea of the tweet assignment. It makes complete sense and I think your students must find it really interesting to use in English class. A friend of mine does something similar in her Spanish class. Twitter (like most internet tools) is something great if it can be used correctly. The problem is that I'm still trying to figure out how to use it to my best advantage. Using Twitter to keep track of your professional resources is a great idea!! I like that you have a place to store your ideas. It's almost like a short professional diary that you keep to yourself. :)
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI completely felt the same way about twitter when we first started this class. I don't really care who can put a champagne glass on their butt, or who is cheating on who. I didn't realize though the number of scholars and people that I actually do care about that use twitter.
I have to admit, I checked on the #momjeans and #worstgift hash tags and did get a chuckle, but like you, I don't have time for mind numbing internet searches. But, now that I see the purpose for twitter in a professional sense, I have been looking at it more and more.
Funny how knowing how and when to use certain technologies makes all the difference. :)
Hi Lacey!
DeleteI really like when you said, "Funny how knowing how and when to use certain technologies makes all the difference." This is so true, and just about everyone in the education world is guilty of committing this error at one point or another! How many people do you know in the education world who are blocked from using Twitter, Google, Youtube, Flickr, etc. with students, even under teacher passwords? How many people do you know in the education world who are allowed to use these tools, but are afraid too, or simply just aren't skilled enough at using them by themselves? What people fail to realize is that many of these tools can do amazing things in the world of education, you just have to know how and when to use each of them :-)
-Angela
Using the correct technology for each situation can be difficult since new technology is popping up daily quicker than dandelions in spring. While people in education may be blocked from using some of these services, it is also true that people in business are also blocked from using many of these technologies. One of my non-education companies at which I currently work blocks Facebook, while my one school for many semesters blocked Facebook on teachers’ computers but adult students could use Facebook on the student computers. Go figure. We not only have to teach how to properly use technology, but also how to find and responsibly use other technology based venues when what we need to do we cannot for a number of reasons. Sometimes the technology we wanted to use is blocked, or has been discontinued. Other times there is an official channel that we have to use in order to submit a technology request. Part of living in the new technological society is learning to navigate how to use the technology responsibly as well as how to actually get to use it in the first place via the proper channels. As more communication tools come out it is also sometimes more difficult to communicate because there are so many more channels from which to choose. This makes electing the correct one for the correct message to the correct audience sometimes overwhelming and confusing.
DeleteI remember creating a Twitter account years ago, publishing one tweet, then never revisiting it for 3 or 4 years. I started using Facebook years before joining Twitter, and it just seemed redundant. I felt like you had to pick Twitter or Facebook, because how would you choose what to post on Facebook and not on Twitter, or would you post the same update to both...which just seems ridiculous. Instagram has added to the spread/thinning of social media for me, since I'm not going to share a photo in multiple locations.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I've found Twitter to be most valuable for myself, as a way to share with students, parents, and colleagues. For example, I'm the BPA Advisor at my school, so when we go to competition I'll publish a lot of tweets about what we're doing each day and how the kids placed in their events. I've found this to be the most valuable use for my Twitter account thus far, since I wouldn't use another social media site for it. For the past couple years I've kept Facebook for only sharing personal stuff, and Twitter for professional content.