Twitter in the classroom, again

Took a bit of a risk today in an effort to explore how Twitter can be effectively used in the classroom. Developing some ideas that have been written about by Ollie and Alan. I'm a little reluctant to use Twitter live at the moment as I don't believe that enough of my network are online at the right time! The other reason for the experiment is that I'm being observed as part of the Performance Management process tomorrow and I want my line manager top see the potential. By using a blog during my last observation they have been adopted by many other teachers.

First I sent the following Tweet:

I chose Year 7 as they are starting a new unit all about sustainability and climate change. I also teach 5 Year 7 groups this year so could use the results widely!

During the day I checked the responses. Some came through facebook. After exploring the possible causes and evidence (including the Prove It! game talked about in my GA Workshop) we moved on to causes. Most of the class mentioned habitats, polar bears etc. A reflection of the medias focus on such issues. This is where I introduced Twitter. Most of the class was very amused that I even had freinds!

We talked about any patters visable. I copied the text into Wordle, and included the text of a number of links contained in some Tweets:

The following discussion focused on the fact that Climate Change is likely to impact on people.

All together a great little lesson, and a stable enough idea to use reliably in the classroom

Worlde image created using www.wordle.net used under Creative Commons Attribution License

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David Rogers

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