Twitter & Teaching

Twitter is one of the many new social networking sites that has become popular on the Internet in the last three to five years. I first heard of Twitter from watching the Fox News Channel. The news anchors were constantly talking about the comments they were receiving, live, from viewers. This seemed interesting to me but I still did not know what Twitter was. While in EDM 310, my Professor, Dr. Strange, began to talk about Twitter and it's possible uses in the field of education. Dr. Strange had us to create a Twitter account and start twittering. I watched the instructional video on the sites main page before creating my account. It was very informative video and creating a Twitter account was very simple. I have been using Twitter off and on for about three or four weeks now.

As far as Twitter being useful in the classroom setting I'm undecided. I can see where it would be useful for gathering information or sources for lesson plans. I can also see using Twitter for networking. I believe that it could be beneficial to students in opening up contacts across the country or even the world. A drawback of Twitter is that it simply seems to be repackaging Internet chat sites and other social sites. I can remember some of the first chat rooms on the Internet. Twitter is just a little better and with your picture. There are also other social sites like My Space and Face Book that serve pretty much the same function. I wonder if students could begin to get overwhelmed by all the social sites and perhaps not be able to focus on their school work. Besides, what site will replace Twitter in a few years? I do agree that the Internet is always dynamic and constantly changing. I also wonder how long total access will last. With the current legislation working it's way through congress the Internet my get regulated quickly and the free exchange of information may be limited. We'll just have to wait and see how Twitter will develope and impact our classrooms.