Class+1_Team+2

__**Twitter in the Classroom**__

__**Intro:**__
Twitter is a vastly growing form of technology that is used everyday for communication, support, advice and idea by discussing with other people. It is now becoming a mean to communicate and participate within the classroom and also on their free time. It is giving students a chance to learn in away that is motivating and new to them."Fortunately, educators (including myself) have found that twitter is an effective way to broaden participation in lecture"(Ferenstein).

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__**Definition:**__
"Twitter is a free service that allows you to post your thoughts and questions in 140 characters or less. It’s been aptly called “micro-blogging.” Some see it as a great networking tool and use it to promote their businesses. Some use it as a source of news and information. Basically I see it as a giant chat room ’cause I’m all about the chit-chat." Definition found on Twitter for Dummies Beginners Website.

__**Advantages:**__
Using Twitter in the classroom has brought about many advantages. In the past, the only means of students participation was volunteering in class. Nicole Barbosa says, "As we did not have the ability to tweet our answer, we were forced to speak our answers and opinions, with not only the fear that it was wrong, but also that your fellow students would laugh if it was." Because of Twitter, classroom participation has become more popular because it eliminates the fear of expressing a wrong answer in front of the entire class. Students can use their smartphone or computer to tweet in respones to the question. Twitter also gives the teacher the ability to tweet out reminders to the class for an upcoming quiz or test. This social network can also be used as a way for the class to get to know each other. The students can follow each other on twitter, and tweet each other as an icebreaker activity. Because a single tweet can only be 140 characters long, tweets must be short, to the point, and effective. It can also be used as a efficient search engine. Kronik Media says, "Twitter has a vast user base who are constantly updating Twitter with new information on different niches." Twitter also makes it possible to communicate as a class beyond office hours and classroom time. "With the use of a simple hashtag (#), it becomes incredibly easy to curate tweets, giving students an easy way to follow the information that is associated with a specific class." says Nancy Messieh. Tweeting educational links to a class has never been eaiser through Twitter.

__**Uses:**__
There are many different ways that you can use Twitter in the classroom setting. Twitter can be used by Teachers, Parents, and Students here are some examples of different ways to use it.
 * You can Tweet about upcoming due dates or reminders about assignments
 * Tweet live about field trips so students who couldn't attend can know what lessons are being talked about
 * Have students Tweet their questions during a lecture
 * Keep parents engaged about what is going on in their children's classroom
 * Students can ask their classmates questions when school is not in session
 * Students, parents, and teachers can post recommendations about books relevant to a topic being discussed.
 * Teachers can plan field trips by asking parental input on where to go and where not to go
 * Easily post changes to assignments, due dates, or on the syllabus
 * Take a survey and work with SurveyMonkey to keep track of results
 * Directly message with both students and parents, allows shorter response time than e-mail
 * Have students summarize what they learned during the lecture and have them ask any questions about things they may not have understood

__**Disadvantages:**__
Although there are many advantages there are also some potential disadvantages. This might not hold true for all students and classrooms but these are some disadvantages to consider. Twitter is such a big blog used everyday that in the classroom it can become a distraction and is known to be a very addictive tool. Also a disadvantage to teacher is since this can be used outside the classroom the teachers are essentially "on call" 24/7. Also since it is an informal blog some believe it can lead to poor grammar skills. One last possible disadvantage is the potential response rate can be fairly limited.

To make sure you stay away from these disadvantages in the classroom here are some ideas to consider telling the students before starting.
 * Twitter is meaningless without peoples participation
 * Teachers can use it as a trial basis first
 * Learn a self discipline
 * Think carefully about the topic
 * Be open to ideas of others/be flexible

__**History:**__
The idea of Twitter comes from a man named Evan Williams who was an ex-google employee. He had originally came up with the idea to use pod-casting but shortly after pod-casting was introduced by Apple on iTunes. Once his idea had been taken he decided to come up with an idea that would allow people to communicate through a blog-type site with having similarities to a chat room. Here is a look at a Twitter Timeline that gives the overall history of twitter.

__**Experiment:**__
One experiment done on using twitter in the classroom was done by a Professor at University of Texas Dallas in her U.S. History course in the spring semester of 2009. She would run her class with a normal schedule on Monday and Wednesday's then have students read information for class on Friday. She then used Friday as a discussion day where she had students post ideas/questions on twitter that they could then discuss together as a class. Overall she saw this as a great way for the students to get involved in a pit style classroom and the discussion went over well. Here is a linkto the website that Professor Monica Rankin wrote about her experiment with Twitter in the classroom.

__**Future:**__
For the future of using twitter in the classroom, more and more teachers are experimenting with the use of twitter for their every day discussions. Teachers are aware of students using social networking at home and some even on their phones in school. By using social networking, such as twitter, in the classroom just allows for the classroom style to be more up to date.

__**Conclusion:**__
For schools hit hard by the recession, Twitter is an inexpensive solution to the growing problem of increasing class sizes. It is a tried-and-true platform to let conversations flourish. Indeed, Dr. Parry declared that “it was the single thing that changed the classroom dynamics more than anything I’ve ever done teaching.”

__**References:**__
Ferenstein, G. (n.d.). In //How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/twitter-classroom/ Miller, S. (n.d.). In //50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom .barbosa, n. (n.d.). In //Distraction or Modern Approach to Encourage Participation//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/blog/twitter-in-the-classroom-distraction-or-modern-approach-to-encourage-participation/ Grosseck, G., & Holotescu, C. (n.d.). In //Can We Use Twitter for Educational Activities?//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from @http://www.scribd.com/doc/2286799/Can-we-use-Twitter-for-educational-activities Messieh, N. (n.d.). In //How to use Twitter in the Classroom//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/06/23/how-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom/ Media, K. (n.d.). In //Benefits of Using Twitter//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.kronikmedia.co.uk/blog/twitter-benefits-of-sing-twitter/319/ Rankin, M. (n.d.). In //Some general comments on the “Twitter Experiment”//. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.utdallas.edu/~mrankin/usweb/twitterconclusions.htm