Twitter Captures Students Thoughts and Ideas by Lisa Nielsen
Nov
23
Written by:
11/23/2010 2:08 PM
Twitter
provides a terrific way for teachers to get an unlimited stream of
feedback from students over a period of time on any subject. Students
and teachers are using Twitter in a variety of ways.
Ideas for using Twitter with students1)
At Marta Valle High School they held an innovation fair celebrating
the successes of the innovative work teachers are doing with their
students. Some students were selected as fair reporters. These students
interviewed attendees with the question, "Please tell me in 140
characters or less what has impressed you most about what you've seen at
our innovation fair." Students tweeted the responses using their
school tag. The Twitter feed could be seen on monitors throughout the
school using http://twitterfall.com, and on their school website using
an rss feed. This provided a unique way to capture their school
celebration publicly and provided recognition of the work students were
doing in an exciting way which they could share with their parents.
2)
Text to capture reflections during field trips. If you're in a school
where cells are banned, you may be able to have students bring them on
field trips. If that is not allowed, the chaperon's devices can be
used. Rather than have students walk around taking notes. Have them
Tweet their reflections. You can set up a tag for your tweets if the
place you are visiting doesn't already have one. Give parents the feed
and they'll instantly know what their child did at school today and can
have robust conversations about it. When students are back at home
and/or school a review of the tweets could lead to powerful
conversation or could serve as a launch for further study i.e. pick the
most interesting tweet or set of tweets and create something to share
with others about the topic you are tweeting about. This could be a
podcast, video, blog post, etc. These digital creations can all be
posted in one place as a reflection collection and even shared on the
website of the school and place visited.
3) Have students do a daily or weekly tweet about something that day. In his post “What Did You Create Today?”
(http://weblogg-ed.com 08/22/09), Will Richardson shares some great
possibilities that could be used in a daily tweet: What did you teach
others? What unanswered questions are you struggling with? How did you
change the world in some small (or big) way? What’s something your
teachers learned today? What did you share with the world? Not only is
this a great way for teachers to have a sense of what is going on with
their students, it also provides students with a way to connect with
each other and their parents.
4)
Use Twitter as a tool to capture student voice by having them respond
to class lectures using Twitter. Texas educator Dr. Rankin had a
tremendous amount of success with this noting how much more engaged
students were during lessons, how they were able to make meaning in new
ways, and her students note how this has really helped more students
develop and share ideas. Hear from the teachers and students directly
at http://tinyurl.com/TwitterinEdVideo.
Here's how to get started
- First each student needs to register for a Twitter account with an email and password.
- Remind
students that this is their academic account and everything on there
should be appropriate. Discuss consequences for inappropriate use.
- Encourage
students to follow a standard protocol for their account names that
reveals identity to only those partaking. One way to do this is having
students use the first three letters of their last name, first three
letters of their first name, and middle initial. For instance my name,
Lisa Michelle Nielsen would be Niemlis. This should be set up as a whole
class activity so all students can be walked through the account set
up together to provide clarity on account set up.
- Next
the teacher should explain to students how they will be using tags.
Tags allow the teacher and students to follow tweets. Look at the
"Trending Topics" in the right hand navigation for popular tags. Let
students click on them and share what they notice about tagging.
- Then
the teacher can share with students the tags they will be using. There
may be a school tag (i.e. Susan B. Anthony High School would be
SBAHS), a class tag, and tags for particular activities or areas of
study.
- Next
the students need to set their twitter accounts up to receive text
updates. They do this by entering their phone number at http://twitter.com/devices.
- They will then enter Twitter into their phone with this number: 40404.
- After this one time set up is complete, you and your students can start engaging in some engaging microblogging assignments.
Safety
note: Teachers should note that some schools may have policies against
following your students on Twitter. That's okay. With tags, you don't
need to follow your students and searches will only turn up tweets
related to the topic you are exploring with your students. Cross posted at The Innovative Educator, International Edublogger, International EduTwitter, and Google Certified Teacher, Lisa Nielsen is best known as creator of The Innovative Educator blog and Transforming Education for the 21st Century
learning network. An outspoken and passionate advocate of innovative
education Ms. Nielsen is covered by local and national media for her
views on "Thinking Outside the Ban" and determining ways to harness the
power of technology for instruction and providing a voice to educators
and students. Based in New York City, Ms. Nielsen has worked for more
than a decade in various capacities helping schools and districts to
educate in innovative ways that will prepare students for 21st century
success.
Disclaimer: The information shared here is strictly that of the author
and does not reflect the opinions or endorsement of her employer.