Tumblr is becoming very handy at finding new ways to use social networking sites as educational tools. While browsing through tumblr under the tag for education I came upon an idea someone blogged about for using twitter in the classroom. I would never have thought to bring twitter into the classroom or figured out a way incorporated it with teaching in an ELA classroom.
Twitter is something that I found many high school students are familiar with using and use it quite frequently. While I was going through practicum I found many of my students making references to twitter such as hashtagging. The blog that I came across in tumblr discusses how he/she had their students create a twitter account for God and their job was to tweet about what his feelings are or what he might think. This idea can be used for characters in a novel, play, short story, etc. Students can follow each other and interact as though they are the main characters, which can help show that students have an understanding or a grasp on the literature they are reading at the time. It's a great way to connect something that some if not most teens use on a daily base to what they have to read for the school curriculum. Of course there are concerns I have with this idea such as how will students be assessed and what to do about students who might have ever used twitter before or don't have access.
I want to know what others think of this idea and I welcome any suggestions because I might try something like this when I student teach in the fall.
I think this is a great way to embrace social media in the classroom. While the teacher must monitor postings and accounts to ensure the class stays focused, the fact that students will be posting in an open forum creates that paper trail for anyone (parents, administrators, other teachers) to view what your class is doing to move through the curriculum. I have also seen Facebook be used for educational purposes. Someone created a Facebook account called "The Universe" and then gave a detailed account of the history of Earth through posts. The user also used humor as a way to provide different viewpoints on the important moments of the past. This would be a great way to have students embrace history through a medium they can relate to and understand.
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