Twitter

I explored Twitter for my Web 2.0 tool. At first I was skeptical of the use of Twitter at all, much less its relevance for the classroom. Personally, I would not use Twitter for my private use but I found it interesting to be able to follow celebrities or politicians. In relation to the classroom I found the above YouTube video that opened my eyes to the uses of Twitter. Students are used to using Twitter and texting in their everyday life and using Twitter as way of developing class discussion could be a great way to encourage participation. Having a character limit forces students to to think critically about their responses and have concise answers. Especially in a University setting I can see this as a positive form of discussion. Students that are shy are allowed to first think about their responses before sending it to Twitter. College classes are often large lecture classes consisting of hundreds of students and using Twitter allows everyone to voice their opinions in and out of class time. I feel that for class discussion in a high school or college setting this could be a great way to integrate technology and gain student interest.