You knew it was only a matter of time. Yes, Twitter has come to education. Or, more precisely, Twiducate.
In the interests of disclosure, I should admit I'm not a big fan of Twitter to begin with, and don't really get the point. Most tweets I've seen are pretty pointless. Even if they were educational, I already have more communication/collaboration tools at my disposal than I can keep track of, and getting students to check them regularly is a headache.
Pew studies show that only 8% of online teens use Twitter (my students roll their eyes when I mention it). So do we really need an education version?
Enough of my curmudgeonly rant. If you DO feel a burning desire, but find Twitter is blocked, or worry about the local porn queen trying to follow your students, Twiducate may be the answer, nor are tweets limited to 140 characters.
I would be very interested in hearing how others use this in their classes, or of possible library uses. Posting updates on new books or programs? Leave a comment and let me know!
Twiducate also allows teachers to select posts to remain at the top of the feed list, ostensibly allowing you to use the site as a discussion group or blog, posting the question, and seeing the replies below.
I've had students answer open response questions on twiducate. The real value is when they highlight their answers in different colors to make sure the answer structure is correct. Since twiducate supports HTML, students may highlight their intro in red, body in blue and conclusion in yellow etc.
ReplyDeleteI've also shared reading documents amd had my students collaborate and comment their reflections.