Twitter, Tweet… Twit?
Twitter. I’m a fan. To be honest, I was a fan years ago but with the development of Instagram, I dropped the Tweeting. I’m also enjoying Tweetdeck. I am using it to follow all the topics I’m blogging about for this class and my personal interests as well. I was hoping to use Feedly to follow Twitter posts and topics but it appears that this option is no longer available.
Twitter seems to still have a strong Educational user-ship and therefore I’ve found it useful. I’m particularly interested in learning more about AI integration into the classroom and teachers using AI so the majority of my feed seems to be reflecting that. I’m also enjoying the educational content discussions that have picked up this week on my, and others’, accounts.
One of my favourite accounts is Alice Keeler (find her website here) and her endless useful content for Edtech. She’s a mom, teacher, and certified Google Innovator. Her content focuses heavily on Google tips and hacks for educators but also includes BookWidgets, AI tools, and student engagement ideas. Her most recent Tweet that I loved was the site of GeoGebra (owned by Google)!
I appreciate that her posts are eye-opening to the endless possibilities of technology. They promote the use of technology in the classroom and, with all of that, her posts are useful and I often find myself saving them for future or immediate use.
Another favourite is TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) which is pretty apparent from my retweet feed. I enjoy their articles, tools, and recommendations on AI and other modes of technology in the classroom or the general lives of teachers. Yesterday they shared AI tools for teachers to use during grading and May’s top 5 AI tools, which they do every month.
As I’m currently planning new units for my new teaching position I find myself constantly referring back to these saved sites from both TCEA and Alice Keeler and incorporating what I can, where I can. Knowing that I will have limited student-device time I am doing what I can to use it as the educator to engage my students, enlighten them on new technological developments, and educate them on appropriate school usage.
My Future With Twitter
Having installed everything onto my mobile device I can foresee my future heavily including Twitter and Tweetdeck. I’m enjoying having a positive PLN on the app and am finding inspiration in that. In fact, I’m looking forward to better contributing to that community once I’m back in the classroom. Not that I can’t now, but I love sharing ‘in the moment’ experiences and ‘ah-ha moments’.
Knowing that I have a unique approach to teaching (completely flipped model cross-curricular) I am hoping that I can find other like-teachers to share and grow with. I found myself bonding with Thinking Classroom educators but, in the last two years, I have started designing fully cross-curricular units (I also have units that are not, obviously I teach some classes that are not with my homeroom) that are taught through a Communicative Task-Based Learning style (Thinking Classroom).
Pros:
useful content
common-minded (and mind-opening) users in my PLN
User-friendly
I don’t find myself doom scrolling
hashtags and tags make it easy to follow topics and find new leads
keeps me current on trends in Education and technology
minimal ads and useless content
Cons:
another app with a lot of content to scroll
a lot of sifting through tags and links to research content
What’s Next?
I am hoping to learn more about AI and build it into my lessons to the point where it becomes second nature to refer to it and use it. I want to educate my learners on how it can be used to their benefit and for the positive. I hope to build a strong, positive learning community that inspires me to grow and continue being a life-long learner.
What is it that you’re hoping for from Twitter?