I have had a Twitter account since before I was legally allowed to (oops!). Anyways, when I had it a long time ago, I really just used it as a place to retweet funny things and I had like 2 followers that were probably my sister and some random that I didn’t even know. When I read that we were going to use Twitter in EDTC 300, I was a bit skeptical as to how it would be useful in the classroom or for teachers in general.
First thoughts:
- I have no idea what SaskEdChat is or what it means.
- What the heck is TweetDeck?
- Do teachers actually do this?
After participating for a bit in the SaskEdChat, I figured out all of my answers. It was quite interesting to see how many people participate in the chat and how engaged everyone is. I will admit – I was a bit intimidated that my answers would not be correct or socially acceptable. I definitely waited to see some other answers before I posted mine. Everything was going good until I saw the creator (bless his soul) comment back to someone in our class and challenged their answer. Now I was very intimidated. I did not want to be embarrassed online.
I do think that because Twitter has a large (larger than I was anticipating) teacher presence, I do think that it would be a useful PD tool. The creator of SaskEdChat definitely wants people to expand their thinking and their knowledge to deal with larger topics that teachers deal with more and more often. I also think that it could be a great tool (like Instagram) to share resources and websites and ideas for the classroom! This is something that I love about Instagram – seeing reels of teacher’s activities and classroom setups and other ideas to get inspiration for my own teaching! I think that Twitter could be used in a similar sense.
In terms of using it in the classroom, I am a little skeptical just because I am teaching grade 3/4. I do not think that I could or would use Twitter with this age group. Now middle years or high school I could definitely see it being useful in certain activities as long as it is closely monitored and expectations are laid out ahead of time. I just worry about some students using it inappropriately or not using it for what it should be used for.
I share the same skepticism as you Kiera! I still do not fully understand Twitter nor am I entirely comfortable with posting to Twitter. I really did enjoy the SaskEdChat though because it was a way to interact with knowledgeable people and it felt more like having a conversation rather than posting to Twitter. I also love the Instagram reels or TikToks that show fun ideas for the classroom!