Monday, July 22, 2013

Twitter Reflection


                When we were first instructed to use Twitter, I was extremely skeptical about it. I tried getting involved in Twitter a few years ago, and I quickly gave up. It wasn’t very user-friendly to me. I still had the same problem this time around. For some reason, it wasn’t easy for me to navigate around Twitter, and I always had more to say on my tweets than what was allowed. Tweets are text-based posts that can be up to 140 characters that are posted within a person’s profile page (Robyler & Doering, p. 221).

                I teach third grade, and I do not think that Twitter would be useful in my classroom. Students between the ages of 12 and 17 do not use Twitter in large numbers (Robyler & Doering, p. 221). I don’t think that third grade students would be able to navigate Twitter very easily. However, I do think that it is useful for an educator. I did manage to follow a few educators that were very helpful. These educators include @Edudemic, @ChrisBiffle, @MMEGrinder26, @mrsjpearson, and @21stcenturyTch. I found these people very helpful because they posted about things that actually pertain to me and my classroom. Chris Biffle is my favorite. He is the person that started the Whole Brain Teaching. The hashtags that I found most useful are #teachers, #commoncore, and #edchat. These hastags were very helpful in getting me to other tweeters that were tweeting things that could help me in my classroom.

                Overall, I wasn’t too crazy about my Twitter experience. I’m not sure if I will continue to use it or not. I know that I probably won’t use it too frequently if I do use it. I’m not sure how much this will help my classroom. It might be more for an upper grade or high school. Researchers know that social networking sites are popular, but they jury is still out on the impact and the value of them in education (Robyler & Doering, p. 225).

3 comments:

  1. I also think that Twitter is useful for educators, but I would not use it in my classroom. The age students that I have would not benefit from the use of Twitter. I know that some students know how to do it, but most do not. I think that it would be more beneficial to older students as well. Great job on your blog!

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  3. You made valid points from Robyler and Doering. I always wondered why my comments would sometimes be too long. I don't think I got as much from twitter either. However, I do see the benefits of using it with older students or parents.

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