After being exposed to Twitter in my technology course, I have brought Twitter into my classroom for good reason. A couple weeks ago, one of our American astronauts went into space via the Russian Soyuz Rocket. Headed to the International Space Station, our American astronaut, Dan Burbank, will Tweet while in space. His last tweet was on November 28, a picture he took showing the Soyuz rocket blasting back to Earth with astronauts in it. Not only do I find this Twitter following interesting, but my eighth graders are loving this! Integrating technology in science has taken yet one more step of awesomeness into the classroom.
Brian
“Not only do I find this Twitter following interesting, but my eighth graders are loving this! Integrating technology in science has taken yet one more step of awesomeness into the classroom.”
ReplyDeleteBrian,
I wish that I was in your 8th grade class. I cannot recall anything nearly this interesting in my schooling. I bet the students were excited to realize that the tweet and rocket blast were “real time”. Students do seem to place more relevance on items that are current and interesting. What a great idea. I really had not thought of an application for tweeting in the class. This is a great example. Thanks for sharing.
Karla
Brian,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great thing to share with your students. Do you use Twitter in your class on a regular basis or was this a one time event. If you use it on a regular basis I would be interested to hear how you have integrated it into other lessons.
I was never used twitter until we had to sign up for this class. Now that I am signed up I have sent a few messages to friends and family, but have not used it in my classroom. I always though of Twitter as a novelty, but I have to admit I am warming up to it.
There are two events that have shown me that Twitter is relevant and possibly here to stay. The first event was the Egyptian revolution when average citizens got the word out through Twitter and Facebook about the events the government was attempting to conceal.
The second event was a Twitter message I received from a friend of mine that is currently sailing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He used a device called a SPOT connected to his smartphone and bounced a twitter message off of a stateliness to all of his followers.
I have to say that getting a message out to hundred or thousand of people in one shot is amazing.
I would appreciate any advice or information you could give me to help my students join the Twitter revolution.
Erik
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteYour students are lucky to have such a fun science class. Do you have a separate Twitter account that you use with your students than one for personal use? What else do you follow? I think it would be fun to have a twitter for your class that students could follow. You could tweet assignments or test reminders or updates in what is happening in class. You could possibly tweet extra credit questions!!
Shelly
Honestly, I am still very new to Twitter. This astronaut is the very first person I am following on my personal account, showing students the updates. My future goals are to use Twitter in the classroom on a regular basis, creating a new account solely for the classroom, tweeting questions about homework or even for parents to post questions or open concerns.
ReplyDeleteThe crazy thing is that most students still have no clue as to what Twitter is, which makes it an eye-catchy technological gadget to use to keep student interest!
"After being exposed to Twitter in my technology course, I have brought Twitter into my classroom for good reason."
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you brought Tweeter into your classroom! Students love the opportunity to see their teacher doing cool and innovative things with them. Astronauts are heroes to so many and being able to follow one in space adds to their legacy. Has this opportunity started the ball rolling on other ways to integrate Twitter into your teaching?
If such a social networking device would be officially approved, yes I would integrate Twitter more in my classroom. I would allow students to tweet their ideas about upcoming projects as well as science news in the world. Shelley mentions a great idea about posting extra credit questions on Twitter to expand upon.
ReplyDelete