Tweet, Tweet?

A few years back, I reluctantly entered the "Twittersphere." Prior to joining, I was largely unfamiliar with Twitter, so I perceived it as nothing more than a stripped down version of Facebook. One thing I knew for certain, though, was that Brittany Spears and Justin Bieber both had huge Twitter followings; this was enough to keep me away.

As indicated earlier, however, I eventually caved. A tech-savvy friend of mine chipped away at my resistance and eventually won me over with this gem: "Dude, Facebook is where you interact with people you have to be friends with...Twitter is where you interact with people you WISH you were friends with."I don't know that such an admission speaks highly of my character, but it was the clincher. Later that day, I signed up for an account and prepared for amazement.

Initially, I didn't get it. The first few weeks I spent using Twitter largely seemed to confirm my suspicion that it was "Facebook Lite." Additionally, I found myself constantly at war with a 140-character limit I did not understand.

Eventually, I did begin to find my way in this new and unfamiliar world of tweeting. I found feeds that were professionally and personally beneficial. I began to understand the way discussions can be facilitated through hashtagging. I started to see how Twitter could give a person a potentially unlimited audience.

Thus, in recent years, I've become a bit of an evangelist when it comes to Twitter. I often find myself saying things like, "No, Twitter is not just a place where people post arbitrary Instagram photos of their latte." I have even attempted to incorporate Twitter as a part of my College Composition courses at my Bolivar High School, though I must admit that our school's filter has largely kept my students and I from getting every possible benefit from its use.

Though the possible applications of Twitter in the classroom are vast, here are a few of the main ways I see it as an extremely useful tool for educators and students:

Research and Generation of IdeasThough latte photography is certainly not in short supply, Twitter is also where some of the most current and dynamic news and commentary on almost any topic can be found. A decent number of my students last fall, when stuck in a search for essay topics, turned to Twitter to find their ideas. Those who followed feeds from news outlets such as NPR or professional organizations such as The National Science Foundation were rarely short on ideas or thought-provoking resources.

Extended Discussion

As teachers, we are constantly fighting against time constraints. There is only so much in-class time and there are only so many course meetings. Thus, if conversations can occur beyond the confines of the classroom, it is to the advantage of both teacher and student. Through hashtagging, classroom discussions can be organized, facilitated, and easily accessed by both teachers and students. These conversations can be asynchronous, allowing students and teachers to communicate at their leisure; this both accommodates schedules and gives each student valuable autonomy in that they can participate when they feel confident and ready to engage.

Collaboration and SharingOne of the goals I have for my writing courses is that they will always be collaborative writing environments. Though I evaluate each student's writing ability individually, I want to create an environment where students are encouraged to work collaboratively to make each other better listeners, thinkers, and writers. Twitter allows students to collaborate in numerous ways; for example, students can quickly share links to resources by tweeting links to each other. Students might also tweet each other previews of thesis statements, the 140-character limit serving as a reminder to be direct and concise.

Authentic AudienceWhen I began blogging, I had no audience and no real plan on how I might assemble one. Thus, I'm pretty sure the only people who read my initial blog postings were my mother and me. Eventually, it became clear to me that social media is the premier vehicle for driving traffic to a blog. Thus, when students are allowed to, encouraged to, or required to become bloggers themselves, social media outlets like Twitter become invaluable resources through which students can get their writing out to an audience that is only limited by their ability and motivation to network and build a following. For any teacher seeking to move students toward writing with authentic audience, the use of social media is not merely an option; it is the primary tool by which that goal can be achieved.

Professional DevelopmentAs school budgets become tighter and tighter, schools are becoming more and more selective about how professional development funds are spent. In my own high school, it used to be common practice to send multiple teachers to expensive conferences all around the country. However, in recent times of budgetary constraint, that has become increasingly less frequent a practice. Twitter can be an invaluable tool for school districts and individual teachers in this regard as it allows teachers opportunity to network, learn from, and collaborate with teachers from all over the world. For example, I am currently conversing and sharing ideas with an educator (from another state) who is working to move his district toward embracing Twitter as an educational tool. It should come as no surprise that I initially became acquainted with this teacher, a science educator in Tennessee, via Twitter.

In chapter six of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson goes into specific detail on how Twitter can be of benefit to a teacher and even how teachers might employ Twitter as a classroom tool. Stil, he does offer the caveat that Twitter "is a bit too Wild West for most school situations," seeming to suggest that there are pitfalls teachers need to be aware of when employing Twitter academically (Richardson, ch. 6).

One such pitfall is demonstrated by the story of a young teacher from Kansas City who was recently placed on administrative leave based on tweets which clearly crossed the line of both professionalism and ethics. The full article from KCTV 5 can be found HERE. In short, the teacher in question tweeted numerous inappropriate comments both about and to students through a private, locked account which he had allowed students to follow. While many would see this as example enough to prohibit use of Twitter in academic settings, I would argue that this presents educators with potential for one of the most relevant, important lessons they can teach, a lesson in digital citizenship, responsibility, and ethics.

Digital Citizenship

Today's students are growing up in a far different world from that in which I and my peers were raised. This is true in many ways, but this stands out to me: the majority of my most immature and unwise moments as a teen only exist today in memory While there is likely a CSI-worthy trail of evidence, one would have to dig pretty hard to unearth most of my youthful lapses in judgment. This is not the case for today's student; their youth is catalogued on servers which readily offer this information to the public, via Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and other social networks. Thus, many youthful mistakes today's students make may very well be held against them in a more real (and costly) fashion than mine might be. Potential jobs, scholarships, or even relationships may be put at risk or lost because of the permanence digitization attaches to our interactions.

Because of this, it is imperative not that teachers run from or live in fear of social networks such as Twitter, but rather that teachers must embrace them as an opportunity to teach and show children what ethical, responsible behavior online looks like. To do anything less seems to be irresponsible practice, at best. Social networking is a present and future reality, and educators have a responsibility to train productive members of the digital world.

Ultimately, Twitter may not be for everyone. I would never portray it as the most revolutionary tool a teacher could make use of in his or her daily practice. It is merely one medium through which the practice of teaching writing can be meaningfully enhanced and supported in a relevant and current format. However, digitally-minded educators can (and should) leverage this powerful tool for the purposes of learning, collaboration, communication, and of course, the obligatory posting of overpriced Starbucks beverages.

 

"District Places Teacher on Leave after Private Tweets." KCTV 5 News. KCTV, 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Corwin, 2010. Kindle.

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