Thoughts on Tweeting

As part of our coursework this week we were to experiment with Twitter. This is a tool I have been using for several years, so I may have a different perspective than some of my classmates. Here are some of my thoughts on Twitter's potential and drawbacks.

Professional Development

Twitter is a fantastic way to build a professional learning network of educators and others in your field across the country (or even world). You can learn not only about recent published research and educational trends, but also see examples of what real teachersare doing in real classrooms with real students and see their real results. You can even follow conferences and other events that you unable to attend, due to travel expenses or other reasons. This is especially useful if you work in a small or one-man area at your own institution, and don't have the opportunity for regular interaction with colleagues.

Instructional Use

Twitter could also be useful as an instructional tool, but only if its use were carefully thought out and aligned with your learning objectives - like any technology, using it just to use it is not a good idea! Benefits of using Twitter would include taking advantage of using a technology that many students are already familiar/comfortable with, encouraging communication/collaboration/discussion without the formality of an LMS discussion board, and the character limit forces students to clearly distill their main points without a lot of fluff. 

Drawbacks

There are of course drawbacks: students who are less tech savvy and would have a bigger learning curve, students who disregard the basic tenets of Netiquette, and the ever present threat of allowing tech to "wag the dog."

Conclusion

In my opinion however, the potential for good definitely outweighs the potential for evil, particularly from the professional development and networking end. So even if you are gun-shy about using the platform with your classes, I would definitely recommend pursuing the opportunity to connect with others.