Twitter in Education

Twitter, as per any blogging site, is a way to share information. As learners, we can't know everything. It's a great resource to have other people to seek information from. Twitter does exactly this. It's a pool of knowledge from people from your field with experience and years ahead of you!

A couple pieces of information on how to get the most out of twitter for educational and professional purposes comes from the article The Teacher's Guide to Twitter. Within this article it lists four important ways to get the most out of twitter: Create, Don't just consume, Connect and Network, Keep at it, and Share your resources. Aren't these all ways to valuable learning and being a teacher without even knowing that twitter was involved? Aren't we as teachers creators, networkers, persistent, and fountains of information? Twitter brings these all together on one website. It keeps us up-to-date and constantly learning without having to research multiple sites. Like other blogging and social media sites, Twitter provides learners with news and new ideas. I could definitely see myself using this in my classroom. I don't think that I would require its use among my students but for my own professional development as a teacher, I can see myself using it. It''s never a bad thing to build up your fountains of information and resources. Another valuable piece of information about twitter and micro-blogging comes from the article Using Micro-Blogging Platforms for Educational Purposes. One quote that stands out to me in this article is "You’ll also find stuff you never knew existed. Use it how it works for you and just take it from there. Enjoy the adventure!" This article mostly explains the way to get the most out of twitter and tips for using it as an educational blogging site rather than person entertainment. Again, Twitter is just a way to find new fountains of information and learn about things you never knew existed, Enjoy the ride and the learning :)

Twitter Chats!

Although unfamiliar to twitter before this activity, I found the twitter chat to be easier than I thought it would be. I was nervous to be a part of the chat all week because I was so unfamiliar with twitter. Where do I sign up? How do I post? How do I hashtag? It all came into focus while actually doing it! I was really pleased that it wasn't as hard as expected.
The chat that I followed was #langchat. This group chat is mostly comprised of language teachers that discuss language issues. The issue of the night was Learning vs Acquisition and how it impacts our teaching. While I am not currently a teacher, I do have some strong feelings about this topic which made it easier to blend in. It was really fun to me to see that people were responding to what I had to say as well as appreciating my words. I loved getting retweeted and favorited! It was mostly concerning how we stray away from straight learning in the classroom and bring students closer to a native level status. This to me speaks highly about pragmatics and ensuring that we bring in outside materials to ensure that our students are learning from as many "natural sources" as possible.
I definitely liked the twitter chats. I found them to be really interesting as well as full of potential ideas and debates. I think at any given time if the topic is right I would love to join in and learn some new information. This I could definitly see myself learning as it is important to form a community of learners.
As per twitter itself, I still am really confused by the site itself. I don't really know its potential at this point having only been a member for a few days. I have a lot of learning to do and information to gather but I think it would give me ideas as a teacher and help me to stay current. I don't think this will be my main fountain of information as a teacher and a learning but I could see myself using it for the chats or just to look at news and ideas.
Thanks for listening!