Journal #5: To tweet or not to tweet (in the classroom)?

I do remember my first impression after reading some tweets a few years ago: that’s nonsense; that’s a tool for celebrities to keep the spotlights on them; it’s a promotional trick; no serious, well-educated person with some dignity will ever tweet… And although most of my friends had Facebook accounts much earlier than me and tried to persuade me to join Facebook, they never actually asked me to join Twitter. Needless to say, I hadn’t had a Twitter account before I was asked to for this class.

Of course, in the meantime, I have to confess that I heard or read stories about people tweeting and warning and/or informing the public about accidents, catastrophes, attacks. And I thought that maybe something good and useful could come out of this useless fad. But nowTwitter in the classroom? What can students learn when restricted to writing within only 140 characters?

What I can now say is that Twitter and education are not mutually exclusive. First, Twitter is a great platform for teachers’ professional development, since they can meet and exchange ideas with like-minded individuals. I followed a couple of educational hashtags, such as TESOL Intl Assn, American TESOL, ELTchat, and ESLlibrary and read very interesting tweets by professionals in the field. I was also impressed by the information and the resources available.

As for using Twitter in the classroom, I have no such experience. But I read a lot of tweets and tips on using it as a learning tool, and I agree that it can have some interesting applications. First of all, it is motivating for students who may already have used it outside the class and are thrilled when using technology to do homework. It can also be used to make students feel part of a community, not only a national but even an international one by communicating with schools and students around the globe. And at a smaller scale, that of a classroom, Twitter can help students learn and practice necessary skills, such as writing concise topic sentences, summarizing, getting to the point when commenting, asking and answering questions, collaborating on writing stories, taking and sharing notes, and many more.

What I realized in such a short time is that Twitter has far more possibilities than I could ever imagine. It is up to the teacher’s imagination to use Twitter in productive ways, all of which can outweigh its limitations.