Using Twitter in class can be a great communication and discussion tool. By giving students a specific hashtag, it is easy to track discussion and responses, and for having a record to look back on later. But Twitter can also be useful outside of the classroom.
- Twitter as an announcement platform – Twitter can easily be used by the teacher to make class announcements both to students and their parents about upcoming classes, assignments, or cancelations.
- Twitter as a discussion moderator – Twitter can serve as a platform to allow the more quiet students to participate openly and honestly without the fear of being interrupted by more vocal classmates. This can be especially helpful in higher education where class sizes may be larger and participation logistically problematic.
- Bite-sized learning – By using Twitter’s 140 character limit, it is easy to tweet out small bits of learning: vocabulary words, terminology, or Shakespeare quotes
It is easy to get lost in the endless talking that goes on between so many interactors on Twitter, so it is important that you designate specific hashtags for each use, and be consistent in their use. Users who want to follow a specific hashtag can either add a column in their Tweetdeck, or save the hashtag search.
Note: This post was inspired by this article.
Amanda M. Orozco 