Twitter & Social Networking

           The articles that we read for this week gave insight into how Twitter and Social networking can be used in an educational setting. In the article Tweacher(n): The Twitter Enhanced Teacher, it talked about an idea of a classroom project using Twitter, “Hundreds of causes, nonprofit organizations, and charities also have Twitter feeds.  Have each student in a social studies or civics class choose an organization to follow for one month. Encourage them to truly get involved by following posted links, re-tweeting important information for the rest of the class, and responding to questions.  At the end of the month, students can present, or in some way reflect, on the cumulative experience.” (Matteson, 2010, p. 23)  I think this is a great way to utilize Twitter as it connects the students to the outside world.  Students can follow their organization daily and dive in depth into the organization.  This project also has room for students to report back to the class which can be utilized to teach students public speaking skills. 
            Michelle Davis spoke upon using social networking as a means of professional development in her article Social Networking Goes to School.  Twitter allows a user to read an article of interest and be able to find articles that are of the same category with online bookmarking. “Millions of people have begun using public, online bookmarking services where they can save links, annotate them with unique keywords or “tags” to organize them, and share them with the world. So, for instance, if you find a great site that lists the 50 best free software programs for teachers, in the process of saving the link to your personal account, you might attach the worlds “education,” “software,” “free stuff” or whatever else you find relevant.” (Richardson, 2010, p. 89). This is a great tool for teachers to easily find information on certain topics. Instead of having to search through the web for a particular category of information, Twitter allows you to one time click on a word which opens the door to many informative texts, tweets, links etc. 
            Social networking in the classroom brings about many different viewpoints and opinions.  In the article Social Networking Goes to School, Davis quotes Montana Miller who is an assistant professor of popular culture and Facebook expert at Bowling Green State University, OH: “Facebook is too much of an intrusion into students’ personal and social lives for education to be using it as an educational method.  I’m not against collaborative, online education with students, but I am against merging their personal, private family world with something required for a class activity. Millions of things can go wrong.” (Davis, 2010, p.18).  I agree with this statement as I believe that Facebook is too much in the personal realm.  I do not want to be connected to my students socially; I do not want to see their pictures as I do not want them to see mine just as one example of the many things that can be seen on a Facebook page. Twitter and Social networking have their perks for classroom use, however there is also potential for social networking and tweeting to go sour as it becomes too involved with personal life. If Twitter and Social networks are instilled in the classroom, teachers need to be very clear and precise on why and how they will be used.