Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter found itself in the news again recently. However, this time it doesn't involve the number of people following Ashton Kutcher or Shaq's latest rant, but how an inventive teacher is bringing the social network into his history class. (View the video or news piece here.)

In case you are unsure of what Twitter is, it is a social networking site (meaning that it is a way to communicate with other users of the network, whether that is the facebook network, Ning network, or Twitter network). What makes Twitter distinctive is that users submit messages of only 140 characters, called tweets. So, tweets work much like text messages, which means there is only a short amount of text to read, rather than a typical blog posting. You as a user will then "follow" other users, which allows you to what they are tweeting. Depending on who you follow will determine the kind of tweets you receive on Twitter. That means if you follow questionable people, you will receive questionable tweets...and you may thereby have a hard time finding the value in Twitter.

To use Twitter as an educator, you will want to locate other trustworthy teachers so you will benefit from their tweets. Many teachers have found the benefit of gleaning resources from the site, but it hasn't had the same reception within the classroom. In fact, most districts have blocked access to Twitter to staff and students alike fearing that the unrestricted freedom of social networking may be abused. The question of cyber-bullying is also a concern.

Let's return to our original topic, which is using Twitter in the classroom. The subject of CNN's story is Enrique Legaspi, a history teacher from LA. After realizing how integral cell phones are to his students he decided to utilize their capabilities rather than trying to fight a losing battle to curtail cell phone use in the classroom. (I applaud Mr. Legaspi for finding a way to bring in what already engages students in order to teach the curriculum!) Mr. Legaspi would then post a question to Twitter and allow his students to tweet their responses. The biggest benefit he has found is that shy students are more likely to join a conversation when they aren't required to stand in front of the class.

Mr. Legaspi has found this to be a great tool in the classroom, but not everyone is a fan of the idea (see here), believing Twitter stunts students' ability to communicate face-to-face.

What are your thoughts on bringing Twitter into the classroom? If you currently use Twitter, how do you use it?

If you're reticent about utilizing Twitter but you like the idea of an interactive class conversation, you might be interested in trying out Cover It Live as a viable option.