Blogging & Twittering

Although I have read blogs in the past I have never created one so this is progress toward becoming a little more tech savvy.  After reading about blogs I can see their benefits in education.  They help students and instructors with writing skills, reading and researching a topic.  Hopefully if someone is going to post on a blog they will take a little more time and try to write as skillfully as they can.  Some reading will probably need to be done before posting on a topic.  Students may need to read and analyze many articles before they can really address a topic intelligently.  This experience helps them learn how to research a topic.  When students post to a blog it enables individual participation which is important when teachers are trying to engage students and get them to play an active role in the classroom.  As stated in the 2009 Horizon Report:  K-12, technology is a primary way for students to take control of  their own learning.  They also indicated controlling your own learning leads to deeper and longer retained learning.  Using an IPAD or other device to blog may get students who do not participate much otherwise to become more involved.  Blogging also allows collaboration and discussion, reinforcing learning because students work with others and discuss each other's ideas.  By following posted links on a blog students may be directed to information that might help them understand more.  If students learn how to do podcasts it also helps with their speaking ability.

I have been on Twitter for a few years now.  I started when my son went to Washington, DC with his eighth grade class.  His teacher set up a twitter account which parents could access so we knew what the kids were doing.  She tweeted on the way to DC and gave updates daily.  It was very convenient and comforting to know what was going on.  Since then I look at Twitter for short periods, sometimes every day, to check on my son's and other tweets.  I follow some of my friends, a few celebrities, news organizations, and other networks that interest me.  It is fun to see direct communication from well known people, their words are not altered or filtered like it happens sometimes in newspapers or articles online.  Twitter lets you see comments that might not make it into a newspaper or an online article, especially those from friends.  It lets you find information very tailored to your interests.  Even though I follow I have never tweeted and until this week's class readings I was mostly unaware of educational benefits.  Since tweeting is microblogging I can see how they have some of the same benefits.  Some benefits mentioned in the video "Tweets for Education" include finding out what is very currently in the news, and getting information on topics form very direct sources, such as a Civics class student following Senator John McCain.   Twitter may be used as a tool for class discussion.  If tweets are monitored closely students can respond immediately and take part in a discussion.  Students also have the ability to respond when they want from a variety of devices.  Twitter allows building a community inside and outside the classroom. One last point I will mention is that since tweets are limited to 140 characters it makes students determine what is important enough to be said, hopefully making them use a more critical type of thinking.

Overall, blogging and Twitter are good ways to communicate personally and professionally.  These tech tools are newer ways to get students involved and motivated to learn.