Twitter can be overwhelming, even for a seasoned Twitterer.
- We use tools, such as Tweetdeck, to help us organize the tweets coming in
- we use #hashtags to filter and connect our conversations
- we @mention, we RT, we DM, we #FF
- we participate in #edchats
- we give credit where credit is due
- we take notes
- we disseminate interesting information to our network
- we amplify our voices to engage in conversation with people from around the world
Yes, it can be overwhelming to follow a conference Twitter hashtag such as #AASSA15 (Association of American Schools in South America Annual Educators Conference . (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3).
Below you will find a few sample sreenshots of Tweets from the AASSA conference in Curaçao. Unpacked and annotexted to make the value of Twitter as a Professional Development tool, a learning tool visible to the untrained eye.
As you are looking at the tweets below ask yourself:
- How could you use Twitter as a backchannel tool for assessment (at your faculty meeting)
- How could you use Twitter as part of your faculty sharing PD learning (accountability) with colleagues who did not travel or participate physically in PD opportunity (amplify and stretch PD money)
- How well was the conference objective/theme (Making Connections- No Teacher is an Island) represented?
- How could teachers and students use Twitter as a new form of assessment to demonstrate evidence of modern skills and literacies?
Documenting and showing process
Different additions and purpose of tweeting a single quote by the keynote speaker
Note taking strengthened by multiple people (compared to traditional solitary/individual note taking)
Visual note taking, giving followers a glimpse into multiple classrooms/presentations. Impossible to do physically (being in multiple places at the same time)
Using photos or visuals to personalize a Twitter message
Twitter is not only a platform to create and store your own notes in 140 characters or less. It is meant for connecting, sharing, communicating by participating in a conversation.
140 characters not enough? Link to a blog post, share your reflections, learning and further resources.
Twitter is about connecting and learning together when you can’t be in the same physical space.
Using Twitter as a reflective tool, exit ticket or as a Visible Thinking Routine
Twitter is real. Twitter “can” go beyond banal sharing of what you consumed for dinner or how your dog feels on any particular day. It is up to you HOW you use the platform.
Twitter is real. The connections that are forged by communicating, sharing and learning together as teachers are real.
Twitter is real. Twitter as a platform to bring educators from around the world together to string their learning and conversations together.
How do you unpack our Twitter feed and make learning and connections visible to others?
cross posted at langwitches.org/blog
Silvia Tolisano is a Curriculum21 faculty member, author of the book Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators and founder of the Around the World with 80 Schools project. Read more at http://langwitches.org/blog.
