Dreibelbis

Article Review #4-Twitter in the Classroom

The first article that I found in my research of Twitter use in
education was 5 Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Classroom for
Education Use; I chose this article because I am from what I consider
to be the borderline generation of social media. What I mean by this is,
Im from the generation that was on the verge of graduating college
when the world of social media really took off. I was focused on other
things when social media use became popular, such as graduating and
starting my career, therefore; I never took the time to experiment with
Face Book, Twitter, or any of the other various social media outlets.
Due to the fact that I consider myself a complete outsider when it
comes to social media (whether it be purely for entertainment and a
hobby, or it be implemented as part of a productive educational
learning experience), I wanted to start with an article that was basic,
as well as fair and balanced. I think this article did exactly that because
it provides a novice learner of social media with basic knowledge of
Twitter use in the classroom. The other reason I chose this article is
because it offered both the good and the bad of implementing Twitter
use in the classroom. Therefore, I found this organization to provide a
very realistic approach. The pros that are discussed include: increasing
student collaboration, encourage participation, useful for homework
help, allows resources to be shared quickly, and keeps parents,
teachers, and students all on the same page. I think that all of these
pros are valid points for promoting social media use within the
classroom. The article then moves on to discuss some of the cons of
social media use, which include: can be a distraction, improper use,
can detract from human interaction, cyber bullying, and posting
inappropriate content. So, as you can see, social media is no different
than anything else, theres good and bad. The article concludes by
offering some additional resources for the reader to review, in order for
them to make an educated decision about social media use in the
classroom.
The next article that peaked my interest, due to the fact that it
was on the NEA website, was Can Tweeting Help Your Teaching? As
soon as I began reading this article, my initial thoughts about the
validity of this article were immediately confirmed. What I mean by this
is, the article starts out by discussing Twitter as a quick way to
communicate with friends, enemies, family, and colleagues. It then
transitions into promoting Twitter with the following statement,
before you write it off as the latest fad, take a look at how some
clever educators are using it to enrich their classrooms and even forge
informal professional networks. (Can Tweeting Help Your Teaching?).
Basically, right from the beginning, the article verified its credibility by

addressing that although Twitter is traditionally used as a form of

informal communication, it can also be used in the classroom, if the
right educator is using it properly. The article then goes onto provide
numerous ways that educators are embracing Twitter use, whether it
be to review lessons with their students, collaborate with other
educators, communicate with parents, etc. Its a very good article that
provides a realistic vision of Twitter use within the world of education.
The article, 10 Amazing Ways for Teachers & Tutors to Use
Twitter in Education, is similar to the NEA article, in that it offers some
creative and innovative ideas for appropriate and effective use of
Twitter in the classroom by teachers and/or tutors. The author, Basu,
does a wonderful job of offering up some real life examples of Twitter
use, some of these ideas include: custom classroom hashtags around
lessons and topics, quickfire recaps and quizzes, language learning,
Twitter as a bulletin board, or set-up a Twitter wall, role play, class
newspapers with Twitter streams, seek mentors via Twitter, parentteacher communication. Basu also does a nice job of including a brief
summary of all of the Twitter functions listed above, in order to fully
inform the reader of each function and how to properly implement
each and every one of them.
The Ultimate Guide to Using Twitter in Education, is one of my
favorite articles; I enjoyed this article because it was true to its title
The Ultimate Guide It provides an endless amount of resources in
regards to Twitter use in Education. It covers all the basic elements of
everything Twitter. The topics that are covered include: the history of
communication, the nuts and bolts of Twitter in education, creative
ways to use Twitter in education, the Twitter experiment, does Twitter
hurt grades? ; as well as the 50 basic steps to using Twitter in
education. This article really is a helpful resource that covers the topic
of the use of Twitter in the world of education. It would be beneficial for
every educator to review, if they are curious about Twitter in the
classroom. The author, Jeff Dunn does a wonderful job of successfully
portraying the organization, Edudemics purpose, which is connecting
education and technology.
The last two articles that I chose to use in my review of Twitter
use in education are two different versions of presenting information,
other than the traditional version of an article, which is purely text on a
page. The first of these two resources is an article put together by
Amy Boroway on Edutopias webstie, 5-Minute File Festival: Twitter in
Education. This is a very interesting article in that it suggests and
provides numerous video resources to assist educators in their quest to
successfully implement Twitter within their classroom. In my opinion,
the author does a great job of validating herself by being up front and

honest, right in the beginning of the article. She admits, Though I

dabbled with my personal Twitter account, my opinion changed when I
started my @videoAmy account and dove into the conversations
educators were engaged in. This was enough proof for me that she
was an experienced user of Twitter for both pleasure, as well as making
it work in the field of education. The article provides an initial 12 videos
that discuss the topic of Twitter use in education; each video is
accompanied with a short description of what the video entails. This is
a good resource because it provides the viewer with similar information
to some of the other articles, but delivered in another format. The
other nontraditional resource that I chose to use was a Slideshare
presentation, Twitter in Education: How and Why, put together by
David Hopkins. This is a valuable resource because it looks at the use
of Twitter in higher education, as well as it provides a perspective from
a different part of the world because the article is sponsored by
Bournemouth University, which is in the UK. Hopkins provides the
reader with the basics of how and why Twitter can/should be used in
higher education.
In conclusion, I feel that this article review forced me to take a
look at something that I knew very little about and had a negative
opinion of; as I mentioned in the introduction, I am resistant to social
media use, due to the fact that I was coming out of college at the time
social media became popular. I have never used it in my personal life;
therefore, I never even considered using it in my classroom. All six of
these articles provided me the necessary information to prove that
Twitter (a form of social media) can prove to be a valuable educational
tool when implemented correctly.

References
Basu, S. 10 Amazing Ways for teachers & Tutors to use Twitter in
education.
(2013, April 15). Makeuseof. Retrieved July 26, 2016 from
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-ways-to-use-twitter-ineducation/
Bororvoy, A. E. 5-Minute Film Festival: Twitter in Education. (2012, Nov.
23).
Edutopia. Retrieved July 26, 2016 from
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-twitter-education
Can tweeting help your teaching? (2015). NEA-National Education
Association.

Retrieved July 25, 2016 from

http://www.nea.org/home/32641.htm
Dunn, J. The Ultimate Guide to using Twitter in Education. (2011,
September 12).
Edudemic. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from
http://www.edudemic.com/twitter-in-education/
5 pros and cons of social media in the classroom. (2016).
SCHOOLISEASY-TUTORNG.
Retrieved July 25, 2016 from
https://www.schooliseasy.com/2014/02/social-media-in-theclassroom/
Hopkins, D. Twitter in Education. (2009, May 12). Bournemouth
University.
Retrieved July 26, 2016 from
http://www.slideshare.net/hopkinsdavid/twitter-in-education