Microblogging: Twitter's Instant Engagement

I have used twitter for about a year. I started with twitter because my cousin, who is also one of my best friends, lives in Florida. She is hard to keep in touch with--we both have busy lives-- but she kept bothering me to sign up for twitter. At first, I thought it was pointless. "I'm eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" or "Running late for class" were typical tweets. I did not really care for twitter. As more of my friends joined, I started to use it more after getting frequent emails about people mentioning me (@missharc). Now, turning my focus to education, there are two major ways that I believe twitter can enhance my professional development.

The first way to grow my personal learning network (PLN) is to follow chats on twitter. The #hashtag makes it easy to follow a specific trend or idea. In the article, Educational Twitter Chats Calendar, the author Mr. Bryne embeds a calendar of educational chats compiled by Sarah Kaiser. But wait-- what is a twitter chat? Mr.Bryne says, " Twitter chats are scheduled events or conversations that use a specific hashtag in an attempt to organize a conversation around a particular topic." I follow several notable English teachers, including Jim Burke, the author of several classroom management/ movement books as well as Carol Jago, president of the National Council of Teachers of English. They often tweet with the hashtag #EngChat, but it took me months to realize they were actually participating in a discussion. The hashtag was just something that seemed to be what people used for fun. Once I found the archives, I started reading them to look for engaging classroom ideas. I am hooked! I usually can't participate in the chat because of the differences in the time zones. However, I hope to join one soon. I also plan on "cruising" the archives in search of new ideas.

A second way I hope to use twitter is to enhance the experience of students in my classroom community. The article I read about using twitter in the classroom was called " 28 Creative Ways Teachers Are Using Twitter", on the Best Colleges Online Blog. While all twenty eight ways were unique and creative in their own way, a few stood out.

1. I liked #9, which was to communicate with authors. I do many different forms of writing in the classroom along with reading workshop. Some authors that I follow do Q and A sessions, so it would be great to have students interact with them. Career Day was one of my favorite days in middle school, so perhaps doing career day virtually could be organized with the use of twitter and/or skype? The possibilities are endless.

2.#16 is the _____ of the day. It could be fun to do a vocabulary word of the day. Students could take turns tweeting the word of the day to make it participatory.

3.#22 suggests holding a twitter scavenger hunt. This could be done in several ways in my classroom. Students can find peers reading the same books, classrooms to interact with, projects to get involved in, and so on.

I hope to continue to learn more about twitter and the classroom. Students love to interact through the use of social networking, and this seems like an easy tool to bring to the learning environment.

A se

Social Networking

A video that hones in on the importance of social networking is the video, Alan Levine- New Media Consortium. This lead me to think more about how I can connect my students to learners outside of Southwest Arizona. A social networking group that will definitely be useful to me is the Classroom 2.0 group. The focus at my school this year is using Web 2.0 tools. I noticed right away a link to the Global Education Collaborative, which is holding a conference Nov. 14-18,2011. I watched two great sessions last year, so I hope to attend this great event next year. I hope to use this as part of my personal learning network, as both a place to ask questions and find ideas to keep my classroom innovative.

In today's society, teachers are constantly under judgement. Each week, numerous editorials and articles are published from the NY Times, to USA Today, to the LA times.

George Siemens has a much different theory of learning that I have read before- the theory of Connectivism. After consulting his article, entitled:Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, I came up with my own theory of a teacher of today. I believe that teachers of today are coaches in numerous ways.

Each coach needs to know the strengths and weaknesses of each individual player. In addition, a coach needs to know how to help the team work together to be successful. My personal philosophy of Education is that we as teachers need to meet the students where they are, and focus on them as individuals to help them achieve in the classroom. At one point in the article, Siemens states that, "Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities" This stresses the need for flexibility and response to trends in the classroom. A coach needs to be responsive to the other team in order to try to stay on top during a game, and train players to be successful in various situations. I believe that in order to prepare our students for the twenty first century, the students need to be able to be flexible, and cooperate with others.

A video featuring Siemens, called The Network Is Learning , has Siemens stating "That network I create is what enables to me continue to stay current." A network is not something that you can instantly create. Establishing a network takes tools, in this case--web 2.0 tools, and an understanding of how to use those tools to the best interests and practices of your field at the forefront of your mind. A good coach knows that the game is continually changing and evolving, as new players show up on rosters and change the dynamics of individual plays, and team chemistry as well. As our students enter the world beyond public education, they need to be prepared for what awaits them. By modeling and teaching tools for web-based networking, and coaching htem on the practical applications

On a side note, one quote that resonated from the video was that, " If I'm not continuing learning, I am becoming obsolete in my particular field." This has been particularly relevant in my professional life over the past few weeks, and has me currently searching for webinars and online conferences to find fresh, new ideas!