Will Tweeting Really Help My Teaching?

There has been a lot of frustration this week with Twitter, I'm still unsure what my exact plan for it is, but I'm starting to see how it would come in handy in extending my PLN. I've gotten some good links off people's tweets, and living in the remote mountains of NC, I have to admit its kind of making me feel a little more connected to other educators out there. For example, it's neat to get updates from people that are gearing up to go to the NECC conference. It kinda makes you feel like you're "in the loop".

Best advice I've read about Twitter this week: "If you find someone's updates to not be useful or be plain annoying, stop following them- you're in control!"

Twitter has earned some brownie points in my heart, whether it would be an efficient use of my teaching/ learning time, I still have to see. Here are some positives, a shout-out to Eric for his link to the Tweeting Your Way to Better Grades article and to Randy for providing the article about whether tweeting can help your teaching (full article here) a lot of these come from there:

• Simple, good tool for teachers open to online PLNs but not tech savvy
• Great to find mentors and keep up with latest trends in education
• Send review statement about a lesson, reminders to students about homework, sneak peeks about the following lesson, etc.
• Tweet review questions
• Direct students to useful/ follow up websites to use for homework or prepare for next lesson
  
• Share interesting things that happen in your lesson/ best practice ideas with other teachers
  
• Get students opinions about specific topics/ use as an opinion poll
• Communicate with experts in your field/ related to the topic you're covering
  
• Ask students provocative questions that will cause them to think about your subject outside class or use provocative question as primer for following lesson
• Encourage discussion and collaboration between your students and other students elsewhere
• Much quicker than blogging so it takes little time, teachers and students with limited time in their hands are more likely to use it
• Carry out book or article discussions with your students
• Keep up with latest news in your field of interest
• Students can set up virtual study rooms, offer each other support and share resources
  

A teacher from the UK posted this piece with 9 Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter. For those of you who want a quickie summary in her words:

Together we're better

Global or local- you choose

Self awareness and reflective practice

Ideas workshop and sounding board

Newsroom and Innovation Showcase

Professional Development and critical friends

Quality-assured searching

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Getting with the times has never been easier.

Here are some other resources I found interesting:

Twitter is Messy (advice for skeptics)
25 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in Your Classroom (some very original ideas you can actually put into practice in your own classroom)
Twitter- A Teaching and Learning Tool

Neat idea based on one given in 25 Interesting Ways...: Have students create an account with a username based on a scientist (eg. @darwin, @darwinswife, @wallace) and have them discuss a topic of the time through tweets.