I have tweeted personally since 2008 but not very consistently and definitely NOT on a daily basis like some of my colleagues. I usually Tweet something regarding a political action that was taken that was especially egregious or something regarding educational instruction that I think is cool... that is, when I remember to do it! My main use for Twitter upon getting an account was definitely “EduTweeping” as Kim Chalmers referred to it in her recent Google+ post. I LOVED being an Edu-tweeper (an Educator who follows an EduTweeter [an educator who Tweets]) because I could get all the great stuff that other people found, delivered right to me. I could then have it on file, so-to-speak, and read it whenever I could find some time. I saw the value in following Tweeters as a way to create a personal learning network (PLN) and I relished in the personalized nature of the experience. Tweeting, however, remained elusive for me. It actually took a forced disruption in the way I had been doing things, to launch me into Twitter-motion!
When the Newspapers in Education program stopped delivering the Vancouver Sun and The Province to my school 3 years ago, I was forced to find a new way “to do my day.” Previously, I had always had the students in my now defunct Alternate program, do a daily '"Humanities" assignments about current events. They would come in first thing, grab a paper, along with a snack, a smoothie or a tea and read. There was always an expectation to “do something” with the information that was being read. I found out early in my Alternate career that a certain amount of predictability was a must. The structured yet individualized nature of this Current Events activity completely lowered anxiety levels and allowed many of my students to leave the messiness of their lives behind and transition more effectively into their life at school.
As for personal accountability: Often times I would have students hand in a summary piece of writing that included a personal response. Sometimes though, they were to read the paper individually preparing to later share orally to the group an interesting piece of news. Other times my 2 EA's and I would take small groups of kids and alternately read articles out loud working on reading fluency and then to discuss what was read to check for comprehension etc. The students balked at first but as the year progressed they really got into it and their reading and writing drastically improved. There were the "teachable moments" too where current events could be related back to history or used as a jump off for math or nutrition lessons. It worked so well. I LOVED it! And then it was gone...
Now what? Go online was a natural next step. The problem was that students were used to Facebook experiences and had to be taught how to “search the web” for appropriate information and “news worthy” articles. Even so, I found that many of them would get lost down the Rabbit Hole that can be the Internet and end up taking FOREVER to find a suitable article! Then "Enter Stage Right" - Twitter.
When the Newspapers in Education program stopped delivering the Vancouver Sun and The Province to my school 3 years ago, I was forced to find a new way “to do my day.” Previously, I had always had the students in my now defunct Alternate program, do a daily '"Humanities" assignments about current events. They would come in first thing, grab a paper, along with a snack, a smoothie or a tea and read. There was always an expectation to “do something” with the information that was being read. I found out early in my Alternate career that a certain amount of predictability was a must. The structured yet individualized nature of this Current Events activity completely lowered anxiety levels and allowed many of my students to leave the messiness of their lives behind and transition more effectively into their life at school.
As for personal accountability: Often times I would have students hand in a summary piece of writing that included a personal response. Sometimes though, they were to read the paper individually preparing to later share orally to the group an interesting piece of news. Other times my 2 EA's and I would take small groups of kids and alternately read articles out loud working on reading fluency and then to discuss what was read to check for comprehension etc. The students balked at first but as the year progressed they really got into it and their reading and writing drastically improved. There were the "teachable moments" too where current events could be related back to history or used as a jump off for math or nutrition lessons. It worked so well. I LOVED it! And then it was gone...
Now what? Go online was a natural next step. The problem was that students were used to Facebook experiences and had to be taught how to “search the web” for appropriate information and “news worthy” articles. Even so, I found that many of them would get lost down the Rabbit Hole that can be the Internet and end up taking FOREVER to find a suitable article! Then "Enter Stage Right" - Twitter.
Image from TweakTown.com
http://bit.ly/1Fd9PM0
http://bit.ly/1Fd9PM0
Andrea, one of my former students, who was also teaching with me in the Alternate Program at the time, decided to take to Twitter in a big way. Brilliantly she decided to use Twitter as a curation tool! She would surf the net for an hour or two each evening (much to her husband's chagrin) and post a variety of "appropriate" articles to her Twitter feed. I was running a School Completion Program with many students with low motivation rates, high comorbidity rates and complex learning needs, so I would spend my time looking for more visual forms of communication: info graphics, pictures or videos. Together, she and I had all the bases covered! CCT - Collegial Collaborative Twittering! The kids could go to their Twitter feed (where they would have an aggregate feed of all those they were following) or go to either classes’ Twitter feed to get only what their teacher posted. Twitter became just the thing that was needed! It worked like a charm.
But alas, my assignment changed. But - I still use Twitter to help support students who are in my Senior Supportive Learning (SSL) class. I have some students in “protected” English and Math classes where I am responsible for designing activities to lead them through prescribed outcomes but I also have to support other students who come into my room to get help to understand and complete the work for all of their other mainstream classes. Some students have one block in the room, others as much as 4 blocks (out of a Day 1, Day 2, 8-block linear rotation). Continuing to integrate online technology, I have moved much of the “assigned work” to the CANVAS Learning Management System as a result of the work I did in OLTD 504 with Avi Luxenburg, but am in the process of figuring out a way to have IFTTT curate my Twitter finds that I want specifically targeted to the group of students in my English blocks. (See the instructional video I created using Snagit below).
But alas, my assignment changed. But - I still use Twitter to help support students who are in my Senior Supportive Learning (SSL) class. I have some students in “protected” English and Math classes where I am responsible for designing activities to lead them through prescribed outcomes but I also have to support other students who come into my room to get help to understand and complete the work for all of their other mainstream classes. Some students have one block in the room, others as much as 4 blocks (out of a Day 1, Day 2, 8-block linear rotation). Continuing to integrate online technology, I have moved much of the “assigned work” to the CANVAS Learning Management System as a result of the work I did in OLTD 504 with Avi Luxenburg, but am in the process of figuring out a way to have IFTTT curate my Twitter finds that I want specifically targeted to the group of students in my English blocks. (See the instructional video I created using Snagit below).
Though I know Tweeting won't be seen as valuable by everyone, I still would encourage everyone to use it more than they have, and in different ways, just to see what might be the possibilities. The "when" of Tweeting has become more frequent since this course has provided me with the impetus to contribute as opposed to just "tweeping." I suspect that the "how" will define itself more clearly as I become more open in the process of re-mixing and re-integrating educational ideas with technology,