Using Twitter: Microblogging

This week, I've been able to look through several blogs on the topic of twitter. As I was making another twitter account for this class, I found that I wasn't really taking advantage of the opportunities twitter could offer in my learning experience. I already had a personal twitter account that I barely used and had thought whats the point? I was necessarily getting much out of it beside the occasional article that I'd find. As I had set up my account for this class and started following other educators, I really started to see why twitter was so important to our learning experience. This new for of micro-blogging allows us to be able to share and exchange information and knowledge in small contents.  As it states in Wikipedia, micro-blogging is a way to post about topics that can range from a simple "What am I doing right now?" to more specific or thematic such as ESL. A Teacher's Guide To The Use of Twitter gave me several ideas on the use of twitter in a classroom. Even though I had previously used twitter in an undergrad class for question/answer assignments. The blog displayed some interesting steps on ways to use twitter as a networking platform. I thought the idea of even getting parents involved in the twitter process as useful in keeping them informed on assignments and would give them the opportunity to ask questions as well. Teachers and Students will get a great challenge in figuring out what to use in a 140 characters. It can go as far as being used for an ESL assignment and getting students to create sentences in a 140 characters or under.Students will be able to work on developing their writing, communication, and critical thinking skills through discussions on readings or assignments. Langwitches also gives a nice break down on why twitter works so well  for younger students in a classroom. I can see how it would be effective to use with the middle school and high school students and getting them to go beyond the routine of what they're doing at that moment and be able to instead think and create a real discussion on classroom topics. As Teachers we're providing students with the skills to be able to build a network and finding strategies to share and connect with other global communities. As knowledge changes every day it keeps them current on learning the new information and techniques on any topic that may be of interest to both students and teachers. As a student I see the benefits of using it for my current learning as well as being able to using in the future for professional networking. I think so far by following other educators I've read so many interesting articles on topics of learning. Twitter keeps things simple and it gets right to the point and the specifics of a topic.