Twitter gives students reluctant to share out loud, a voice and opportunity to be part of the discussion. Twitter is like SMS on the Internet. Students and teachers, and possibly administrators, send small bursts of information in the form of a tweet, in less than 140 characters.
If you think that's not a lot to share, Twitter users know you can add links, hashtags, images, and other media. Tweets are concise and thought out before shared.
Twitter can be an incredibly useful backchanneling tool. Too often students sit and listen to lectures where responses are not sought and sharing important points are not welcome.
Students have a chance to:
- retweet/highlight specific statements
- ask questions about specific information
- start a search query about a statement not understood
- correct classmates before incorrect information is put in permanent memory
- create specific hashtags around the current discussion and invite others
- ask students from other classes to join the discussion or answer a question (like phoning a friend)
- create a second discussion with a teacher assistant or student leading the discussion
- share links that support or challenge points shared by the teacher (when teacher creates an environment where students are comfortable challenging each other and teacher)
- have tweets streamed on a TV screen or projector during lecture
- bring parents, siblings, or other community members into the classroom discussion
With Twitter, a classroom conversation can easily turn into a community discussion where local experts and subject matter scholars can rub electronic elbows with students eager to connect what they're learning the outside world.
Start, or keep, the conversation going, join Twitter and use it with your students! Just tell them it's like texting through the Internet.
A great example of high school students being introduced to Twitter through higher education: