The Twitter Handbook is about to hit shelves. When the editors asked me to contribute a short piece on Twitter in education, I was happy to share. Here’s an excerpt:
Many teachers find that Twitter is a better online collaboration tool than wikis or blogs. Some of the reasons include:
Easy access- Twitter is invisible technology. The student doesn’t need to learn a set of buttons and menus.
Low Risk- Reluctant learners can handle 140 characters (usually less). There’s little chance of failure.
Real time- Students see their project grow as they work. Collaborators can work from different computers with out fear of clogging the project (a problem with many blogs and wikis)
No formatting- Given bells and whistles, many students will ring and toot instead of write. The simplicity of Twitter offers only a place to add text.
Concise writing- 140 characters means each word has to be necessary. The process of posting to Twitter forces students to become better writers.
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Tags: Collaboration, Education, Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter Handbook, Writer
September 25th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I couldn’t agree more!
“Given bells and whistles, many students will ring and toot instead of write.”
That is very much true. Evidence: Myspace, and the recent awful angst-ridden outcry against the facebook redesign because you can no longer force your friends to see your spammy avatars and stickers before they can actually communicate with you. Young people generally stink at simplicity.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more. Seems, I make time to twitter, but somehow don’t have time to blog.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
@Lori -
Twitter is much easier to use. But you could tie your Twitter account to your blog. I know a few who do that. It gives you an overall record you can edit later into developed thoughts.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
@TheInfamousGdub -
Design is what we’re talking about when we say “MySpace is evil.”
September 30th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Keeping an open mind but I am still to be convinced of the uses for twitter in the classroom.
Currently trying out edmobo with my classes, looks to have more functions with learning potential.
My students will ultimately decide which they prefer, maybe neither.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
@TonySearl -
That’s a great approach. If something won’t work in your classroom, there is no reason to use it. Just posted about that. It’s not which tool we use. It’s what works for students.