I have been a long time Twitter user of many years, but I have never really thought about using it in the classroom setting. Twitter has been a very important tool in my life, as it has allowed me to easily stay up to date with my interests. It is also a great way to keep up with current events and even on-going events. All I have to do is just search for the proper hashtag on Twitter, and the service automatically shows new tweets regarding the topic.
Finding a way to use it in the classroom is a bit difficult though. Obviously it could be used as a source of communication, but Facebook and text messaging is already available for that. Twitter also has a character limit which can make expressing long ideas difficult. In the classroom, we would want students to write eloquently and without abbreviation so this can be very difficult, if not impossible to do on Twitter.
Q1: What kind of skills can Twitter reinforce in the classroom?
The character limit can force students to express their ideas concisely, which is a very important real world skill.
Q2: What kind of benefits can Twitter have in school?
The main benefit is that it is another source of communication between students, which can keep them engaged. And when it comes to learning, engagement and motivation are some of the most important factors.
I agree with your reflection regarding the abbreviations due to the limited character count. In an educational setting Twitter might be good for quick updates or snippets of information, but to use it for more than that...I'm not quite sure I agree. There are multitudes of communication options, and although Twitter may have a place in the digital age of communication, let's not forget the importance of a well thought and properly formatted email that exceeds 140 characters.
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