Community reviews for Twitter

I set up a Twitter for my classes at the beginning of the year, and encouraged students to "follow" it. Before setting it up, I was concerned about maintaining boundaries, going about social networking in a professional manner, etc., so I researched how other teachers were using it. Twitter allows a level of higher interaction without crossing the line; I never follow students back, which keeps a level of professionalism - I am their teacher, not their friend. The downside is that not all students choose to follow (or use) Twitter, so the messages only reach those who choose to engage. At the high school level, though, that's reasonable.

I love using Twitter for "Exit Tickets." It FORCES the students to summarize their thoughts and knowledge over the information to the limited amount of characters. Twitter is easy to use and most students already have an account.

Twitter is a unique social media tool, which allows for public conversation. This mitigates possible legal issues with private teacher/student interactions. It allows requires short expression, which means that students practice editorial skills, vocabulary, and lapidary style of expression. Many students already use Twitter to connect to news and friends. When Twitter is used by teachers for academic purposes it weaves in academic content into students' daily interactions. It also sets an example for students on how to use Twitter professionally and that adults do read (or can access) what is put on Twitter. The tool can be used during classroom activities with connection to twitterfall.com as a backchannel tool, or it can be used as a tool for reminders or to build a study guide for exams. "According to StudyBlue survey, those who use their mobile devices to help them study are almost 3x more likely to track their academic progress, study 40 more minutes each week because they can study on the go, aren't pulling too many all-nighters - they are twice as likely to study between 6am and 8am." There are examples of student engagement with Twitter.