Twitter, anyone?
I found this post about using Twitter in a class setting interesting. Not sure I'd want to do it myself, though. I like my privacy in the off hours. Still, I wondered if it couldn't be useful for class related updates -- profs sending out reminders of what students should be working on? Students indicating what they're up to on projects?
What do you think?
posted by Vanessa @ 4:13 PM
7 Comments:
I had seen the same post earlier today. I have seen some great applications for twitter (not all of which I can remember right now). If students had twitter accounts, it could be an interesting way of taking quick informal assessments in very large classes. Or seeing which questions would be most commonly asked if everyone had a chance to talk. The problem would be aggregation - but if you have a feed reader for all these twitters it would be okay.
Personally, I find reading twitter blogging annoying after awhile. While I appreciate the immediacy of twitter, I want more 'meat' sometimes. Its better to have a blend.
I've seen my sisters use it to update everyone on the latest and greatest on their lives, and that's just overkill. I do think it may be a generational difference since they've come of age with cell phones and I'm still not into the whole everytime everywhere thing (although I love my cell and email from it, I also turn it off and don't answer it often).
I've not done any twittering myself. But the article got me thinking about it, that maybe there's something to it.
But yeah, it wouldn't meet all needs.
I definitely think that twitter as a form of communication is interesting and may have great application - but, I'm not so sure yet about its use as described in the article. It would be interesting to use it as a way to love to get a community-wide reaction to an event as it was happening or right afterward. I like the immediacy of it, but at the same time worry about its fractured and shallow nature. In software engineering you often see a new technology over used at first- but when you find the right tool for the job it's amazing - maybe we need a little more time before we know for which job this will is the right tool.
Two points for me. Firstly, I own a mobile phone only because it was a hand-me-down when I got to America (I don't take it everywhere with me, only a couple of people have the number); I had one last year because my boss forced me to sign it out from the Q-store (once again, only my immediate work colleagues had the number, and they knew I didn't take it everywhere). I'm not big on the 'be contactable anytime, anywhere' thing, so for me twittering messages probably wouldn't be received in time to get the immediacy that it facilitates.
Secondly, one of the responses at the actual link site said something about people who 'twitter' being 'twits'. I don't know about over here, but at home a twit is someone who does silly things or has a lack of common sense, so I'm not altogether sure I'd like to send a twitter message and be called a twit :o)
Call me 'old fashion' or 'traditional', but I still like the face-to-face style of classroom instruction. Having extra 'twitter' sessions 'hurt' my private and family time - that which I treasure a lot. Already emails and SMS are overwhelming me!
Having said that, I leave my SKPE and MSN on all the time for instant messaging and calls. But mostly by my family in Singapore. Perhaps this twitter thing is something that generations need to overcome. I'm ok to try it out.
I can understand how this would be a great asset in a classroom but I don't think I'd like my students/ parents to have access to me like that.
It seems like it would be great for teenagers to keep in touch.
I have never heard of it until I read the article and the posts here. I would like to try it out first to really understand. However, I would agree with most everyone here that the easy access portion is not desirable in many cases. It is great for teachers to use new technology to engage students- especially those in high school. On the other hand, there are so many other options out there to explore. Plus, I still can't get over the fact that cellphones are allowed at school. I remember getting mine taken away at one point and almost getting a referral for it. Thus, I come from a background where cellphones while can serve emergency and necessary purpose such as calling someone to get picked up, they can be easily used solely for entertainment purposes. This includes the constant texting about each other's days. I wouldn't feel comfortable as a teacher using cellphones as an instructional tool. I feel that the cellphones would be more of a distraction since students have access to friend's cell numbers. It would definitely take some time for me to adjust to using it instruction wise.
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