How can Twitter be used in the classroom?

-Twitter Chats 

-Sharing Resources – using hashtags and having specific hashtags for a class or group

-Collaborative Learning – sharing ideas with a focused learning purpose

-Developing a sense of community through class engagement

Twitter is used for a variety of interactions:

-Hashtags -Mentions -Replies -Networking -Dialoging

How can Twitter be used as a professional development tool?

Twitter is a great way for education students as well as new teachers to access a variety of resources. One of the suggestions made in class is to find different people and groups to follow.

Connecting with other students in education has huge benefits, for helping us learn together, share our ideas, and grow as a community of educators.

“Twitter is whatever you want it to be” – Teach Thought

I found a great guide for Teachers getting started. 

The Beginner’s Guide To Twitter For Teachers In 10 Steps

Here are some of the best Educational Accounts on Twitter to follow!

50 Of The Best Education Accounts On Twitter

Some of my personal challenges using Twitter so far:

-Keeping it brief is hard for me! During the class #SaskEdChat I found myself wanting to write long comments, but having to reduce my words to fit the limits, and then struggling to keep up with the pace of the chat as a result!

-Linking Twitter to my blog site took me a bit of playing around, but eventually I got it!

-There are so many interesting people, groups, chats and hashtags to follow. It was hard for me to stay focused!

And finally, from the journal of Educational Technology:

“Students, teachers, and other stakeholders use it as a pedagogical tool to gain information, interact and engage with each other, participate in their respective communities of interests, and share their insights about specific topics. Moreover, Twitter has the potential to enhance students’ learning capabilities as well as improve their motivation and engagement due to its unique features and non-traditional teaching approach.”

Retrieved from: https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239-019-0166-x

This week, I subscribed to Feebly, an online feed reader that organizes information from the web into one place. A few categories I set up to organize my favourite topics are: Education Resources and Yoga!

Two favourite education resources I discovered are:

1. Ted Ed

Ted Ed consists of short educational videos. This site is an offshoot of the Ted Talks, with videos designed specifically around educational topics.

I watched a cool video about the air we all breathe – this feels especially relevant in the era of global warming and the season of the covid pandemic and continual mask wearing. We need to think about our air!

2. Teach Thought

This site offers a wealth of teacher resources including quotes, inspirational and ideas lists, podcasts, workshops and webinars.

I read a great article about Reciprocal Teaching, where students take on both roles of teacher and learner within small groups as a method of improving their reading comprehension. I love collaborative learning approaches, and I like encouraging learning that involves using multiple areas of the brain to help solidify understanding and information consolidation.

What Is Reciprocal Teaching?

I am looking forward to using Feebly! I have never used this app before and it’s cool to try something new! It’s got a great set up – right off the bat, it seems very organized and easy to set up! The one downside seems to be that the search options seem limited without paying for a subscription. For example, when I went to search for #naturekids (a topic I am very interested in), it said nothing was available without a subscription.

What is my experience with Educational Technology?

-For a long time, I have been fascinated by the use of tablets for communication support in kids with disabilities. For several years, I have followed the story of Carly – an autistic person – who learned to communicate with the use of a computer. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4311223&page=1

-My bonus daughter is a huge fan of the math learning game that she uses on her tablet at elementary school. It’s called Sum Dog! https://www.sumdog.com/cn/

-I have seen how some schools in Whitehorse make use of websites for building community and sharing learning adventures with parents. I think it’s a really cool way to get connected! Surely, it must instill a sense of pride and joy in children to show their work online to their parents and caregivers too!

-I follow some Facebook groups for teachers – one of my favourites is called “Teacher Memes” – It’s memes made by teachers trying to let off steam at the end of a long, hard day of teaching.

-Some of my classmates used Twitter in previous courses.. This one is new to me – I am open to learning.

-I use Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends. My Dad takes many beautiful photos of Yukon animals and landscapes. Here is a photo of an owl that he recently shared on Social Media:

What are my thoughts on Blogging?

-The best approach is to just sit down and write. Having a bit of an outline, or starting with a point form summary, seems to help me when I get stuck. Then I can just fill in the blanks for each topic!

-I feel relieved that I already have a blog set up from a previous course- it makes it easy to get started on making posts for this one! It’s also nice to have a written record of my learning experiences and journey.

-It helps me to write out my thoughts, and to articulate my ideas.

-I like the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas with others in the class, to receive some feedback, as well as receiving guidance from the teacher.about:blankImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL