Twitter for Teaching

An interesting read, Amanda Wynter’s article Bringing Twitter to the Classroom shows a high school English teacher experimenting with integrating Twitter into his classroom. He does ultimately seem to have success, and students appear to have been more engaged and interested in participating in discussion when given the opportunity to do so online.

There are quite a few interesting observations about having students use Twitter throughout the article. In particular, I liked the part about how students could “utilize their experiences in English class and include their class hashtags as they responded to tweets from One Direction and Tim Tebow.” This allows the teacher to measure students' comprehension and application of concepts introduced in class. The opportunity to directly connect students back to class during their leisure time is certainly attractive, but could also be difficult in terms of winning over reluctant parents who may be particularly protective of students’ online activity. I also liked the idea of this teacher sharing students’ tweets to his network of education-oriented followers to favorite and reply to students’ ideas. Not only would it be a great opportunity to practice for a language class, but students can also experience their ideas being thought worth reading by other people out in the real world.

Searching for more ideas about how to make use of Twitter as a teacher, I came across 60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom by Global Digital Citizen Foundation. It’s a pretty straightforward list of (you guessed it) 60 links to examples of ways to implement Twitter into a class. They’re split into sections like Communication, Organization, Resources, Writing Skills, and Twitter Exercises. Many seem obvious, but there are a few that stuck out as clever.

I like the ideas of having students follow public figures or news agencies for easily digestible news summaries, network with native speakers who share interests, and build a foreign language content stream. I also liked the idea of teachers connecting their classes to exchange foreign language practice. Twitter is a great way for the language learner to practice because each post is limited to 140 characters, so students never have to struggle with staring at a big page of foreign language. They can feel good about understanding and being understood more easily in such concise messages. Using any of these activities over Twitter seems like it would be a smart way to get students to practice outside the classroom.

In addition to the social networking benefits teachers enjoy when growing a professional network, there are also many possibilities for language learners to improve by making direct use of a global communication tool like Twitter.

Education for the Future

After watching the videos, the two that stuck for me were The Future Starts Now – 2012 edition and Future Learning | Mini Documentary | Good.

In The Future Starts Now – 2012 edition, information and communication technology (ICT) is looked at as an educational tool. Though schools may have access to this technology, it is rarely implemented in ways that truly benefit students. The video proposes that better use of this technology could connect students on a level more familiar to them with their education, and ideally increase graduation rates. The video focuses on Norway moving to become a “knowledge based society” (that is, build an economy based on citizen’s knowledge, as opposed to oil and resource trade), but really applies to any country at the moment. The video proposes “computers can teach us to learn things in different ways.” With elements of multimedia, networked communication, and access to so much information, I feel it is fair to say computers can teach us to learn things in different ways. Another good point is made in that connecting to students with newer technology is absolutely vital. Students are using all kinds of newer technology outside the class, and having teachers integrate it more meaningfully into education seems to engage students on a level they’re comfortable with.

Future Learning | Mini Documentary | Good is another video that addresses student interaction with technology. Early in the video, a big problem we deal with all the time in education is brought up – lack of student motivation. The video claims the current model of education stifles motivation. It claims there’s too much repetition and it’s all a bit irrelevant to the students’ real lives. I think that’s something a lot of us may agree with, but it’s still unclear how to address that exactly. The most meaningful moment in this video, for me, was challenging the goals of education. Are reading, writing, and arithmetic really antiquated goals for education? It sounds a bit forward, but I tend to agree with the idea that they could be at some point in the near future. Another part that resonated with me was the critique that, though schools may be implementing cutting edge technology, the content taught with this new technology is often fundamentally dated. If the content were truly interesting, the students would be engaged by their own curiosity. Content provided outside the context in which students could use it leaves it disconnected from their reality, and the things they study in class seem irrelevant when they leave school. 

The use of technology to build an environment in which students are active participants and can connect their education experience to making real-life accomplishments is a natural and efficient way to keep students interested and motivated.