Twitter and Microblogging in the classroom...

As new as I am to using Twitter, I can DEFINITELY see the potential that this microblogging tool could have for increasing interest and motivation in my classroom.

Tom Barrett has a very interesting article about Twenty-Seven Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom.

He mentions using Twitter to keep parents and administrators up-to-date with what is going on in your classroom. Since I'm still getting the hang of "tweeting", this is about all I would feel comfortable with at this point. I can see the potential of tweeting about what is going on in class, what upcoming due dates are important, etc.

Since I haven't had the chance to experiment with privacy settings, who can see what, etc. I don't feel comfortable yet with having my students develop their own twitter accounts to tweet as a class assignment. However, once I become more comfortable with using Twitter, I would love to extend it to assignments that involve students. For example, I could have them respond to my tweets, or have them post "tweet conversations" in Spanish about various topics.

After reading an article by Times Higher Education, Tweet Yourself to a New Circle, I realized the potential for Twitter as a professional development tool. Not only that, but it allows you to connect with people interested in the same things as you, and share your resources easily around the world. I would love to know of interesting websites people find, new and interesting project ideas, unique vocabulary games or classroom games, etc. I also am extremely excited to be able to share all of my ideas with my colleagues around the world. Although creating a large network currently seems like a daunting task, I'm sure that I will have created a large network of colleagues from around the world in no time!