That being said, there is one way to cheat twitter's adhd inducing characteristics that can make it a useful tool for educators and other professionals; provided they have a smartphone... Tweets can be tracked, (as mentioned in the "28 Creative Ways Teachers are Using Twitter" article, 28 Creative Ways teachers are using Twitter) to discover trends and to see students' and other teachers' progress and findings.
Other than this, however, the rest of the article seems to suggest classroom-disrupting and distracting behaviors for the 21st century student. I hope I am not hurting anyone's feelings by taking this stance, but tweeting the answers to questions in the middle of class seems to be detrimental to the learning process. I feel that if the teacher and students are meeting in a classroom on a regular basis, it stands to reason that the students ought to be expected to raise their hands to answer a question posed. Also, God forbid a student should have to use a pen and paper to take a quiz or test.
There is one bright spot to all of this... I found in Using Twitter as an Educational Tool that Twitter is a great way for connecting students in countries around the world, and providing a place where they can discuss topics and share ideas. The example that I thought was truly ingenious was that Twitter is the perfect online platform to tell collaborative stories, using posts from kids anywhere in the world. Since they are limited to 140 characters, everyone has an equal say in the development of the tale. I understand that Twitter can be helpful for someone with enough technology on-hand to look like an 80's action movie villain, but for most people, especially in the ESL field, money isn't the most plentiful thing in life, and twitter may be a bit unreasonable for the classroom. That being said, the opportunity for the exchange of new ideas and classroom activities is endless, and for a teacher making a lesson plan, or seeking help on how to reach a struggling pupil, Twitter may just provide you with some quick answers.
Nice post, Mike! Starting a blog is a pretty sweet homework assignment. Technology in L2 Teaching sounds like a really interesting and progressive class. I just finished my lesson plan for my first 50-minute lesson this week (on real international students in Berkeley! eeeek!)
ReplyDeleteAnnie! That's great! I can't wait to take my Methods and Materials class next fall, so I can be useful in the classroom. Best of luck with your lesson!
DeleteWhether a teacher decides to use Twitter in the classroom depends very much on how comfortable the teacher feels with that particular tool and, more importantly, whether there is a good educational reason for doing so. That said, I don't think that you should dismiss Twitter outright as a learning tool since it can have many educational uses outside of the classroom.
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