Twitter, Teaching and Education

I just finished some pro-d at knowschools.ca about education and the basics of microblogging (essentially a Twitter tutorial).

I'd just started using Twitter and had gone through the initial "why would anybody bother to use this" phase, and was using it to update students for extra help sessions during exams. There have been a couple of 'aha' moments, and if you're an educator I would highly recommend exploring microblogging.

Twitter itself doesn't do a very good job of suggesting what it's for. Answering the question "What are you doing?" immediately gives the wrong impression. Nobody wants to know what you're having for supper, or what music you're listening too (although many seem to disagree). The key to using twitter as a support for education is connecting to a community of shared interests. On nearly the first day I was directed to a community that listed twitter users by educational specialty. I signed up to follow a few Tweeters that seemed relevant. Within 5 hours I'd received updates on education sites for Smart Board use, moodle advice, and a variety of other useful links. As well, a twitter search comes with its own RSS feed! http://tinyurl.com/be5q8k + http://search.twitter.com/ & rss feed for search = automatic moodle updates for class. Just include the same unique hash tag in each twitter update, and you've got a quick way of updating your course moodle site with relevant web links for your classes.

In short, it's worth exploring. I'd be curious what uses anybody else has found.

Cheers,

Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School