Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter in the Classroom

Many people have been warned of the possible harmful effects of using technology in the classroom. Will they become dependent on technology to learn?

Well, Twitter is one of the most recent innovations to social media and networking. For those of you who are not sure what Twitter is or how it is used here is a brief description. Twitter is owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and I would say mini-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts and are displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are visible to the public as default, but senders can make their tweets private in which only those following them can see them. Users may subscribe to other’s tweets, in which this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.

Twitter in the classroom has seemed to be a new phenomenon for classroom activity. I have personally had a professor use twitter regularly in her course; from events in the news to class updates, assignment reminders and so much more. I found that this was pretty interesting and kind of made me feel that the professor was trying to reach her students in innovative ways. I also feel I benefited from this sort technology being used for academic purposes.

In some cases that I have recently read about teachers and professors are finding new ways to engage and retain their students’ attention through the use of Twitter. They are introducing it in their classrooms and having it be a part of their lecture segments, which I find even more fascinating. In addition some are even replacing previously used technologies with Twitter.

Here are a few links from those who have used Twitter in their classrooms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxIz_3o3O0

http://tametheweb.com/2009/02/24/twitter-in-the-classroom-2/

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professor-encourages-students-to-pass-notes-during-class-via-twitter/4619

What do you think about twitter used for academic purposes? Do you feel it can be effective? Do you feel students will become dependent upon this type of social media? Share your thoughts.