[Air-L] Twitter Use In Education > Twitter Lessons in 140 Characters or Less

[McKiernan, Gerard [LIB]]

Colleagues/

 

A Most Interesting Initiative !

 

/Gerry 

 

Kathleen Kennedy Manzo / Education Week  / October 16, 2009 [Online]

 

The Twitter feed for Lucas Ames' class in American history has shown
some lively exchanges of ideas and opinions among students at the Flint
Hill School. One day this month, 11th graders at the private school in
Oakton, Va., shared articles on the separation of church and state,
pondered the persistence of racism, and commented on tobacco regulation
in Virginia now and during the Colonial period-all in the required
Twitter format of 140 or fewer characters.

 

Those are exactly the kinds of interactions Mr. Ames had hoped for when
he decided to experiment with the microblogging tool in his classroom
this school year.

 

[snip]

 

In discussions on the DEN, which is hosted by the Silver Spring,
Md.-based Discovery Education, Mr. Dembo has noticed a significant
uptick in questions and recommendations among teachers about using
Twitter, mostly addressing how to simplify administrative tasks or
encourage students to conduct research or collaborate with classmates
and their peers across the country.

 

Mr. Ames, the history teacher, has already seen some results in
classroom participation by students, who are given the choice of
participating in the Twitter feed or writing an extra research paper.

 

[snip]

 

Dorie Glynn, who teaches a bilingual 2nd grade class at Kirk Elementary
School in Houston, has been preparing students for conversations of
their own on Twitter. The students have started following other classes
at the school, and across the country, as they get ready to share data
on regional cultures, weather, and to play a virtual I Spy game, in
which they will hunt for geometric shapes in maps and photos sent from
Twitter followers in other places.

 

With scant research on the efficacy of social-networking tools such as
Twitter, and few clear insights into the best (and worst) uses for them,
there is little agreement among researchers and educators about how or
whether Twitter-like technologies could or should be used in schools.

 

[more]

 

A Link To More Content And The Full Text Is Available At

 

[ http://tinyurl.com/yfmtjsz  ]

 

BTW: I Am Interested In Any/All >>> Significant <<< Literature [or
Tweets  [:-)] Related To 

The Use of Twitter/Microblogging For Education / Learning ; Please Post
As A Comment On The Posting 

 

Thanks For Your Assistance !

 

/Gerry 

 

Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor

Science and Technology Librarian

Iowa State University Library

Ames IA 50011

 

gerrymck at iastate.edu

 

There Is No Answer, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

 

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed

Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace