I'll Tweet to That

After reading more about the benefits or Twitter for teachers, I see it more of a tool that can be used in the classroom. It can be a fun and interesting way for students to participate in the classroom learning experience. 

In the article 6 Best Twitter Tips Every Teacher Should Know About, they provided 6 different tips for teachers using Twitter. The first tip was to maintain visibility. This is important because having a Twitter account it one thing, but you need to be using it. If it is just sitting there, collecting digital dust, it isn't doing you, or the Twitter community any good. Secondly, you need to "rally up support". This is similar to my last post about Twitterchats. Having conversations and tweeting at others allows for information to be shared between community members. Thirdly, you need to "show your fans some Twitter love". This includes following those who retweet you, favoriting tweets, and retweeting others. This allows for a growth in your community of fellow teachers or even classmates. Fourthly, one needs to "share unique content". If you were to use Twitter in the classroom, it can't just be mindless Tweeting. The content being used needs to be focused and worthwhile material. Fifthly, you need to "tweet what you see when and where you see it." Tweeting is the fastest way of spreading information and news. There are always people who are live Tweeting events. Lastly, you need to "be as concise as possible in your wording and length". I think this is something that can be extremely useful when you are in the classroom. When tweeting, you are only given 140 characters. What you tweet needs to make sense with the limited amount of space you are given. 

Another article I read was The Teacher's Guide To Twitter, by Edudemic. It again emphasized that it Twitter is a great way to connect with other, while not only gaining information, but creating information as well. They went on to explain just how much Twitter has to offer. They again emphasize the importance of maintaining your account and keeping in contact with others. They also provided a list of 100 ways in which you can useTwitter, grouping them in categories. These categorizes consisted of: Getting Connected, Search, Organization, Authority Building, and Getting Value. They then went on to talk about the benefits of using Twitter in the classroom. They provided tips which included; don't require that students follow your account, commit to posting at regular intervals, vary the time of day of the posts, post links to content that is user friendly, know your audience's interest, don't just retweet, generate original links, suggest people, organization or magazines to follow, be personal, but also to avoid being overly personal in comments. There is a great deal that microblogging through Twitter can do in the classroom. Teachers just need to be consistently participating in its use, both for gathering information and sharing it. 

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