The+Social+Web

Ideas for Using Social Web Tools (i.e. Twitter) in the Classroom


 * __I. Twitter__**

- Twitter is a social networking site in which users write or read "tweets": thoughts, updates, and/or interesting information posted on a user's account. - Twitter is considered "microblogging" because each "tweet" can only contain up to 140 characters. - Twitter can also be used for "direct messaging" users-- sending short messages to specific followers. This can be helpful as a way to communicate with those who check their phone for messages regularly, but without regular email access.
 * **General information:**

- Personally: keep in touch with friends and family daily. - Professionally: professionals share ideas, feedback, information - Self-promotion/advertising: companies and celebrities use Twitter to build, entertain, and update fans/consumers of relevant news.
 * **Popular uses:**

LINK COLLECTION - Using a specific Twitter to collect relevant links or example sites for any project. Twitter is a great way to aggregate ideas and commentary in one place, and because the posts are so short, the amount of information doesn't overwhelm students.
 * **Ideas for the classroom:**

HOMEWORK - Assign your class a news event or television show to watch for homework. Assign them response questions to answer via twitter as they watch for an online written discussion.

- Have a "Ms. __" twitter account and post homework assignments on it for both students and parents to see and keep up with assignments easily. Students or parents can ask clarification questions on Twitter @ your address, and other students can see your response as they complete their work. (You can also include links to readings, websites, or articles in your twitter feeds so you can extend student learning electronically!)

Example of how Twitter "changes the game" in the classroom: Check out [|Twitter Collaboration Stories]

PROJECTS - As an independent homework/learning project, have students follow three people (one from each of the following categories): 1. celebrity/athlete/ or company 2. professional, blogger, or columnist in an area of student's interests 3. a friend in or out of class. Students will have to log (in journal or blog) what they learn from those they follow. They will compare and contrast how different Tweeters use Twitter and for what purpose.

-Have students search a topic, book, or event that is relevant to them, their research, or to your full class curriculum. Have them record 5-7 interesting tweets on this subject. (Students search Twitter in this way by typing #subject in their tweet box).

-Have students conduct a project on real-time response to a current event, using Twitter. Teach students how to respond to primary source data that is being presented about a very recent event.

-Analyze language and grammar on Twitter to look for linguistic patterns and make students aware of how online language is similar to and different from academic language.

PROFESSIONAL USE -Follow other teachers on Twitter to see their classroom ideas or to post your ideas and receive others' feedback.

-"Directory of Learning Professionals (& others) on Twitter" -"Twitter for Teachers" -"Twitter in Academia" or follow "AcademicHack"
 * **Twitter resources for teachers:**

__**II. Social Bookmarking Sites:**__ - Social bookmarking sites allow people to organize, keep, and share the information they gather online. - Unlike creating a bookmark for a page on your computer, social bookmarking sites create a copy of that page for your personal collection of resources. Thus, if the resource you found gets taken off of the internet, you can still access a copy in your bookmarked collections. - Bookmarking sites also allow users to subscribe to topics, so they can read any resources that other users have collected on those topics. - Most bookmarking sites allow users to generate and follow tags, which are a great way of keeping track of relevant information.
 * **General information:**

- Personal: social bookmarking is used to share interests, hobbies, and information among internet users -Professional: social bookmarking is used to keep, annotate, organize and share research on different topics- (an expansive and high-tech set of research note cards)
 * **Popular uses:**

PROJECTS: - Research: Kids can pick a topic or issue to research for a unit or all year. As they research and find resources relevant to their work, they can organize and annotate their sites for future research papers, projects, etc. If students share topics or find information that relates to a friend's topic, they can share their resources with each other.
 * **Ideas for the classroom:**

- Independent Reading/Learning: Kids can create "subscriptions" for topics that interest them (ie- baseball, gardening, Obama, etc). When they log into their account they can read the articles that other users have collected and shared around their topics. This can serve as their independent reading time, and they can log or journal what they've learned by annotating and saving the sites or in some other form (class notebooks, etc).

PROFESSIONAL USE: - Idea share: join groups in the site that have to do with your subject area. Read, use, and share resources with those who teach what you teach!


 * **Social Bookmarking Resources for teachers:**

-[|www.Delicious.com] -[|www.Diigo.com]

__**III. Other Social Networks for Teachers:**__

[|The English Companion]
"A ning social networking page for anyone preparing to become or wants to consider being an English language arts teacher. This social networking site has over 4000 members and growing. An extremely useful resource and networking tool if you are an english language teacher or are pursuing to become one." (http://applicant.com/ten-online-resources-for-teachers-to-connect-and-collaborate/)

[|Teachade]
"A social networking site designed for educators. Teachade harnesses the power of web and collaborative technologies to help classroom teachers. Find resources, articles and collaborate with other like minded educators to help you in your teaching profession. Features blogs by community members, resources and a personalized workspace." (http://applicant.com/ten-online-resources-for-teachers-to-connect-and-collaborate/)