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Colleagues/

A Most Interesting Initiative !

/Gerry

Kathleen Kennedy Manzo / Education Week  / October 16, 2009 [Online]

The Twitter feed for Lucas Ames’ class in American history has shown
some lively exchanges of ideas and opinions among students at the
Flint Hill School. One day this month, 11th graders at the private
school in Oakton, Va., shared articles on the separation of church and
state, pondered the persistence of racism, and commented on tobacco
regulation in Virginia now and during the Colonial period—all in the
required Twitter format of 140 or fewer characters.

Those are exactly the kinds of interactions Mr. Ames had hoped for
when he decided to experiment with the microblogging tool in his
classroom this school year.

[snip]

In discussions on the DEN, which is hosted by the Silver Spring,
Md.-based Discovery Education, Mr. Dembo has noticed a significant
uptick in questions and recommendations among teachers about using
Twitter, mostly addressing how to simplify administrative tasks or
encourage students to conduct research or collaborate with classmates
and their peers across the country.

Mr. Ames, the history teacher, has already seen some results in
classroom participation by students, who are given the choice of
participating in the Twitter feed or writing an extra research paper.

[snip]

Dorie Glynn, who teaches a bilingual 2nd grade class at Kirk
Elementary School in Houston, has been preparing students for
conversations of their own on Twitter. The students have started
following other classes at the school, and across the country, as they
get ready to share data on regional cultures, weather, and to play a
virtual I Spy game, in which they will hunt for geometric shapes in
maps and photos sent from Twitter followers in other places.

With scant research on the efficacy of social-networking tools such as
Twitter, and few clear insights into the best (and worst) uses for
them, there is little agreement among researchers and educators about
how or whether Twitter-like technologies could or should be used in
schools.

[more]

A Link To More Content And The Full Text Is Available At

[ http://tinyurl.com/yfmtjsz  ]

BTW: I Am Interested In Any/All >>> Significant <<< Literature [or
Tweets  [:-)] Related To
The Use of Twitter/Microblogging For Education / Learning ; Please
Post As A Comment On The Posting

Thanks For Your Assistance !

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

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There Is No Answer, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed
Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace

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