Escrito por MARGARITA GUTIÉRREZ VALDÉS, 25 de febrero de 2016
en SOCIAL MEDIA
By: Samantha Miller
Many
critics of Twitter believe that the 140-character microblog offered by
the ubiquitous social network can do little for the education industry.
They are wrong.
Teachers
have taken advantage of Twitter’s format to keep their classes engaged
and up-to-date on the latest technologies. The following projects
provide you and your students with 50 ways to Twitter in the classroom
to create important and lasting lessons.
1. Tweet about upcoming due dates or assignments
One
of the simplest ways that teachers can use Twitter in the classroom
involves setting up a feed dedicated exclusively to due dates, tests or
quizzes.
2. Provide the class with a running news feed
Subscribe
to different mainstream and independent news feeds with different
biases as a way to compare and contrast how different perspectives
interpret current events and issues.
3. Use Twitter in the classroom to create a career list
Set
up an interesting assignment requesting that students set up Twitter
for education lists following feeds relevant to their career goals and
keep a daily journal on any trends that crop up along the way.
4. Track memes
As
inane as Justin Bieber’s popularity is, at least an educational
opportunity lurks around the corner. Instructors concerned with
communication and sociology issues can easily find a number of different
lessons on ideas engaging Twitter for teachers and fads spread
throughout different media sources.
5. Coordinate assignments
Rather
than keeping up with an e-mail train, students can use Twitter to
collaborate on different projects and keep a quick reference on any
changes.
6. Track a hash tag
More
ambitious educators may want to incorporate Twitter in lessons that
track hash tags for another interesting lesson in how trends spread and
the various ways in which people use social media to communicate ideas.
7. Connect with the community
Partner
up with local government or charitable organizations and use education
Twitter to reach a broad audience discussing the latest cultural or
educational events in the area and encourage others in the community to
attend.
8. Follow the issues
Bring
a little technology into debates by asking the class which issues they
would like to follow. Subscribe to relevant hash tags and accounts from
all perspectives and compile an updated resource cobbling together as
much research as possible.
9. Write a story or poem
Many
writers and poets have experimented with Twitter’s 140-character format
to bring new, serialized works in small chunks to attention-divided
audiences. Some educators may like the idea of asking their students to
apply their creative writing skills to a restrictive social media
outlet.
10. Live tweet field trips
Sick
kids or paranoid parents may like the idea of following along with
class field trips on Twitter, and smart phone-enabled teachers can keep
them engaged with pictures and descriptions of the lessons learned.
11. Ask questions
Monica
Rankin at University of Texas-Dallas uses Twitter as a way for her
students to keep a running stream of questions going during lectures –
an application that works in any computer-enabled classroom.
12. Set up a foreign language news stream
Keep
foreign language students informed of current events from relevant
nations while simultaneously challenging them to use their translation
skills by keeping a specific news feed.
13. Role play
Computer-savvy
teachers can keep history lessons engaging for children by asking them
to tweet ideas and quotes from their favorite figures. Alternately, they
can also pretend to be famous fictional characters as well.
14. Take and share notes
Classrooms
with enough resources can allow students to tweet their own notes
during lessons and share with their peers – perhaps even printing them
out for home use if they do not have internet access.
15. Sync with a blog
Wordpress
and other free blogging websites sync with Twitter, posting notices of
new entries. Educators who require students to keep their own blogs may
want to follow updates using Twitter rather than having to click through
bookmarks for each one.
16. Chat with industry professionals
Older
high school students who need to explore their career options before
spiriting away to college benefit from real-world discussions with
professionals in paths they’re considering. Twitter helps them connect
with primary sources and facilitates educational communication.
17. Connect classrooms
Teachers
and students from around the world can collaborate on projects using
Twitter as a communication tool that simultaneously educates students in
different classroom and cultural protocols.
18. Facilitate research
Typing
keywords into Twitter’s search engine wields every microblog entry on
the subject, providing an excellent way for students to research ideas,
opinions and movements as they happen.
19. Engage parents
Parents
of students interested in daily classroom activities can follow teacher
tweets discussing some of the lessons learned and any progress on
projects with one quick and handy trip to a dedicated Twitter feed.
20. Become politically active
Any
teachers responsible for educating kids in politics or government may
like the idea of encouraging their students to use Twitter as a forum to
make society aware of issues that affect them by retweeting relevant
events, news stories, blog posts and other media revolving around a
chosen theme.
21. Track the government
Numerous
local and national government organizations maintain their own Twitter
feeds, and educators working within any of their related subjects may
like the idea of compiling them all into 1 convenient space for a quick
reference.
22. Write reviews
Any
media studies classes – including literature – can use the Twitter
format to write microreviews of the different movies, books and music
devoured.
23. Post sample questions
Save
paper by using Twitter to post up sample questions for upcoming exams
for students to research and consider without ever having to put down
their computers.
24. Post supplementary materials
Retweet
articles, news stories, opinions and other interesting tidbits relevant
to a specific class as an excellent, convenient supplement to classroom
lectures.
25. Facilitate discussions
Take
supplementary material postings one step further by requiring students
to post their own succinct responses to the main theses and open up
intelligent discussions with one another.
26. Play the stock market game
High
school economics teachers frequently use stock market games as a
real-world project involving the fundamentals of investing. Students can
use Twitter to follow the businesses, markets and analysts that help
them make wise choices with their (fake) money.
27. Live tweet a book or a movie
Ask
students to use the microblog format to record their initial reactions
and responses to movies and books as they indulge in them for class. It
certainly makes for an excellent lesson in how perceptions change over
time as more information and perspectives become available.
28. Make recommendations
Benefitting
both students and their parents, teachers may like the idea of using
Twitter to discuss films and documentaries or books to check out at home
– preferably as a family. Doing so especially benefits younger
students, as they typically perform better in high school and college if
their parents are involved in their lives and educations.
29. Plan field trips
Encourage
parental engagement by asking them to voice their opinions on where to
go and where to avoid when it comes to planning field trips. While it is
impossible to please everyone, moms and dads will appreciate the
transparency and ability to connect more with what their children are
doing and learning in school.
30. Design a background
Art
teachers curious about how Twitter can benefit their classes may like
the idea of asking students to design their own creative backgrounds for
friends and family – either digitally or using traditional media
scanned into a computer
31. Compare religions
Because
so many religious figures and institutions use Twitter to discuss their
beliefs and teachings, it stands as an awesome resource for liberal
arts educators to compare and contrast the various faiths that have
shaped humanity since its inception.
32. Post syllabus changes
E-mail
inboxes often filter out important messages as junk and students lose
papers or miss class for various reasons, meaning that some of them may
miss out on important announcements regarding any changes to the
syllabus. Twitter keeps a permanent record of any new bits of
information so nobody has any excuse for missing out.
33. Take a poll
Teachers
who enjoy polling their students on what activities to do or their
opinions on current events may want to keep a running tab of results
they find when working in conjunction with SurveyMonkey or another
similar site.
34. Hook up with Google Earth
Numerous
educators have found creative ways to blend Twitter and Google Earth
together for human and physical geography lessons where they use the
former’s “location” feature to learn all about new places on the globe.
35. Teach probability
One
immensely creative teacher discovered a way to introduce his students
to the basics of probability by asking a broad question and charting the
answers he received through @ replies.
36. Go on a scavenger hunt
Narrow
the old, reliable internet scavenger hunt to cover only Twitter,
varying the degree of difficulty depending on the age range of the
students. Much older kids may appreciate the added challenge of
deciphering riddles that pull from their lessons.
37. Get a little bit postmodern
Another
way English teachers can stimulate their students with Twitter involves
having them compile and edit coherent stories based on pre-existing
tweets by other people.
38. Channel that inner Lois Lane
Send
journalism students out into the world of microblogging and assign them
to poll fellow students or ask questions of experts for use in
assignments on trends, opinions and current events and research.
39. Track weather patterns
Set
up a class Twitter feed that discusses the weather in different areas,
charting the findings on Google Maps or Google Earth and making note of
the patterns that crop up along the way.
40. Create a character
Creative
writing or English students of all ages can participate in making up a
story character of their very own, with each individual contributing a
sentence or 2 towards a personality or back story. Teachers can then ask
them to write their own stories based on this collectively created
literary figure.
41. Create a progressive poem
Similar
to the collaborative character mentioned above, students can also
compile their own poetry where everyone contributes one line that flows
with the one written before.
42. Play word games
Post
a daily challenge asking kids to unscramble anagrams, contribute
synonyms or antonyms or give a definition for any vocabulary or spelling
words as another way of getting them more involved in their language
lessons.
43. Post math puzzles
Math,
chemistry or physics teachers need not feel left out from playing games
and posting teasers on Twitter. Like their literate contemporaries,
they can microblog a daily problem for students to solve and tweet back
the answer.
44. Post videos
Educators
with access to digital video cameras may like the idea of using Twiddeo
to post in-class skits, walkthroughs of field trips, clips of their
travel exploits and anything else relevant to their students’ lessons.
45. Create an online art gallery
Kids
studying art and the humanities can curate their own shows based around
creators, movements, regions, time periods or thematic elements that
they enjoy, using Twitter as a way to show the world what they think
belongs in a specific exhibit.
6. Play with TweetStats
TweetStats
allows users to input a specific account name and look at a bar graph
of the microblog’s activity. Students can search for tweeps in their
school or town and gather data on how and when their neighbors use
Twitter.
47. Network with other educators
Beyond
using it for lessons, teachers who Twitter have at their disposal a
vast network of like-minded professionals with whom they can trade ideas
and insights regarding social networking in the classroom and other
topics.
48. Direct message students and parents
Because
e-mail filtering frequently ships important messages off to the trash
can, some educators may prefer talking privately with kids and their
parents via the direct message feature on Twitter instead.
49. Join #educhat or other educational profiles
One
of the best ways to connect with other teachers and keep up with the
latest trends and philosophies regarding education by subscribing to the
#educhat hash tag and participating in the community.
50. Summarize
At
the conclusion of each lecture, ask students to type a 140-character or
less summary of what they have learned and perhaps pose any questions
to be considered in the next class.
Using
Twitter in the classroom is limited only by an educator’s imagination.
Though many believe its limitations prevent valuable applications to an
academic setting, teachers in the know have learned that using Twitter
in education can establish a nurturing classroom for students of all
ages.
