Twitter in the Classroom

Here's my contribution to the million dollar question:

"How can we use Twitter in the classroom?"

This question has been raging since late June when NECC and then BLC brought Twitter to the masses. Even though I wasn't lucky enough to attend either of these conferences, I gained a lot through the backchannels of Twitter and Skypechatcasting.

But I've been reluctant for some reason to think of Twitter as being an educational tool. Even though I've capitalized on it a lot and have gained a lot of great resources by using it, I wondered about using it in a classroom. But then today, Kyle Lichtenwald, one of my favourite new bloggers, posed the question on Twitter about using it in the classroom and I realized it was time to give this more thought.

I can see its largest benefit coming from being used in a classroom that has a 1:1 laptop program. To gain the most benefit from a tool such as Twitter requires access, basically constant "presence" and the time to dedicate to its stream of consciousness. In many classrooms, where students are allowed online, at best, for a portion of a day, the effectiveness of micro-blogging tools fades away.

But in a 1:1 classroom, students could gain the same benefit from Twitter that I do as a hyperconnected professional. Think of a 1:1 classroom that is hooked up with one (or more) other classes located somewhere else on the globe and each of these students having subscribed to the Twitter feeds of the students in other classrooms. These classrooms could function as a single learning unit even though they could be separated by thousands of miles geographically. Now imagine these classrooms working on a single project or novel together. Students could pose questions on Twitter about the novel they are reading. They could ask for help on projects. They could post what they are currently working on in order to keep group members informed of their progress. It would draw students much closer together and keep each other deeply informed of questions, concerns, and thoughts they have, something that is often a struggle in international projects.

In "regular" classrooms with few computers, or where students only have access to machines for part of the day, some benefit could be derived from Twitter in the same fashion, but it would be less. And lets not kid ourselves, when kids free themselves from school and the technological shackles that are imposed on them inside of our buildings, they sit on MSN at night and do their homework together anyway. We wouldn't be teaching them anything new allowing Twitter to be used this way in the classroom, just learning from their experience and strengthening the reach of their network.

Twitter at your own peril.

technorati tags:kyle, Lichtenwald, twitter, classrooms, connections

Comments

[Jo McLeayJo McLeay]

Hi Clarence,
I do like the idea of using twitter for international classroom collaboration in the way that you describe. It makes me wish I was in a 1:1 situation just to try it out. I wonder if we could still use it. It would be an example of real world educational use. And your point about collboaring via msn is well made. I just don't know how much homework is done this way. I wish more was.

[Doug Belshaw]

As I've just posted on my blog in response to this post, I see 1:1 computing as being a MINIMUM in the 21st century. I'm looking forward to it being the norm and building upon it. Twitter's a great application with massive educational potential. :-)

http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/index.php/2007/08/17/becoming-digitally-literate-via-twitter-in-the-11-classroom/

PS Why no HTML comments? :-(

[Damian Bariexca]

Hi Clarence - This seems to be a popular question. I blogged a bit about it myself last week here, and included some suggestions for humanities-based classes: http://apaceofchange.edublogs.org/2007/08/08/promoting-twitteracy-in-the-classroom/

[Brian Mull]

What do you think about having a class set of Twitter accounts. Say CoolSchool1, CoolSchool2, etc. all sharing the same passwords and assigned to students. Then, using TwitterCamp using it like those quick response systems that cost a fortune?

It's a thought in my head, but I don't know if it's worth much more than that.

[Brian Mull]

What do you think about having a class set of Twitter accounts. Say CoolSchool1, CoolSchool2, etc. all sharing the same passwords and assigned to students. Then, using TwitterCamp using it like those quick response systems that cost a fortune?

It's a thought in my head, but I don't know if it's worth much more than that.

[Brian Mull]

What do you think about having a class set of Twitter accounts. Say CoolSchool1, CoolSchool2, etc. all sharing the same passwords and assigned to students. Then, using TwitterCamp using it like those quick response systems that cost a fortune?

It's a thought in my head, but I don't know if it's worth much more than that.

[Brian Mull]

That was weird, sorry about the triple post.