To be frank, I never thought about Twitter as an educational application. I have always viewed the app as something for teenagers to use to vent or talk to friends, etc. In hindsight, I suppose that is exactly what we are doing! We are using our Twitters to connect, not only to our fellow classmates, but to educators and professional all over the world. At first, I was truly skeptical of how using twitter would help with this class, but I have learned much more than I expected through my twitter conversations and timeline. I learned about various different apps that can be used in the classroom. I have even given someone advice on an app to use in a special needs classroom. That is what I really like about twitter. You can give and take knowledge. Someone can share a post on something they have learned or used, and through that you can become aware of something new. You can also be the one teaching others. I think it is very unique how this Twitter was integrated into our Web Tools course because I would have never thought twitter would help me learn. I have found that Twitter is such a colorful places, full of diverse educators from around the globe.
I think the downside to Twitter, is also its upside; anyone can say (potentially) whatever they want. Twitter gets very political. As a future educators, I need to stay as professional as possible on the internet, but it is hard not to want to express my opinions that may differ from others. Looking back on the “tips slides” that we made in our google classroom, my tip was to keep your language appropriate and keep your website clean. Another tip was to stay out of controversy. One of my previous blog posts was about how a high school teacher was talking ill about her students on Facebook and how that backfired. You need to be very cautious and aware of what you post on your social media. Also, when other people post controversial things, it is important to stay classy and “clean” and not get involved. With Twitter, you just need to be very careful what you say.
One thing I learned from using Twitter in this way, is that there is such a gigantic community of educators to talk to. Everyone is conversing and sharing ideas. It is really refreshing and exciting to see such comradery on Twitter. When I follow people, they often end up reaching out to me and also they’re professionals, they are still very willing to help you or speak with you. I have gotten numerous direct messages from educators telling me that if I have any questions or concerns about my chosen field, that they would love to answer them. It is just so nice to see adults wanting to help other adults become better at what they do.
Lastly, I love participating in twitter chats with my classmates. Some of us share similar views, while other times we disagree. Everyone is extremely respectful and all speak in a very educated and appropriate way. I think using Twitter is a really good way of learning about my classmates. We all retweet and comment on different things, and through that we learn a lot about one another. Conversing with my classmates is by far the most interesting part of using Twitter because I get to learn about how they were raised and what they were taught in their classrooms. Also, I get to learn and shares ideas with them about what we want our future classrooms to be like.
