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Using Twitter for Teaching and Learning

There’s been a lot in the press lately about the use of Twitter and about the use of Twitter in education. A number of UK universities are running an online course in using Twitter for teaching and learning on 19th-20th January 2010. In the email I recieved it states the following:

This 48 hour online event (to allow international and flexible attendance) will include an exciting mix of webinars, case study presentations, Twitter discussions, a chance to try out a range of Twitter tools, and an opportunity to reflect on Twitter’s use in teaching and learning (via Twitter!) It will be possible to drop in and join activities and discussions at anytime during the 48 hours and the discussion outcomes will be summarised onto a final Wiki and Best Practice Model for Twitter. The programme includes the following:

• Using Twitter for information dissemination – Case study and discussion with Stevie Farrell from Leeds Metropolitan University

• Using Twitter for collaborative learning activities – Case study and discussion with Danielle Hinton from Birmingham University

• Using Twitter for reflective learning activities – Case study and discussion with Tony McNeill from Kingston University

At the end of the event you will be confident in using Twitter, have gathered ‘followers’, used hash tags to organise topics, used other Twitter tools, know how to RSS feed Twitter into other applications and have explored a range of learning activities.

This event costs £50 and is aimed at teachers with limited or no experience of using Twitter. Full details of the programme are available here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=233182426438

Please complete the booking form to reserve your place here: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/about_us/university_departments/ldi/booking_form.jsp

Using Twitter in the Classroom

We’ve been using Twitter in our computer games project in which pupils from local primary schools have been using Endless Ocean.

Twitter seems to be the latest ‘big thing’ in web 2.0 – more and more people are using it to stay in touch, keep informed and network with each other. I check my Twitter updates every day now alongside my emails to see what other teachers are discussing about the world of technology and education.

Some refer to Twitter as ‘micro-blogging’ – messages are restricted to 140 characters or fewer. It is a way of sending frequent, quick messages. Others can choose to follow you and so be kept up to date with your latest messages and you can follow others and therefore keep up to date with them.

Additionally you can Twitter from your mobile phone so you can keep in touch on the move. Catherine at Sheffield South City Learning Centre recently wrote a great post about it on the SSCLC blog.

So, How can Twitter be used in the classroom and more importantly – Why?..

Mark Warner wrote a great article on the Web here. He lists 25 inspiring ways to use Twitter in the classroom.

In particular, I like the following ideas:

• Summarise topics / issues as tweets (140 characters or less remember!). Students could produce fictional tweets between two historical characters such as King Harold and William the Conqueror
• Collate classroom views i.e. save or spend in the current economic climate

We tried number 17 – Communicate with Experts. As part of the Endless Ocean Games project we have been lucky enough to contact an American Marine Biologist and have asked her questions about the world’s oceans and the life in them. Although we have had a few problems with time differences, this has been really a really enjoyable and useful exercise. Pupils will be able to post follow up questions and see her answers back at school.

Twitter is unfortunately blocked through YHGfL but Tweetdeck isn’t as yet. From an Internet Safety point of view, users can protect their updates and show only people they want to their messages. How to do this is explained here.