Twitter is a great resource to use in the classroom. However, it's very difficult to create a sustainable use of Twitter. By sustainable, I mean that a lesson could be used for each of our 10 classes across each year group in a secondary school with 1,250 pupils. That's a lot of good will from my Personal Learning Network. So how can we ensure that the use of Twitter becomes embedded in our curriculum?
As a curriculum leader it is vital that any teaching initiative can be applied across the whole age and ability range. As an eLearner it is important that other curriculum leaders and staff see that any initiative can easily and effectively embedded into the curriculum.
'What do you mean sir, you're still learning?'
Of course, using Twitter as a CPD tool for teachers is great, and I'm enjoying talking to pupils about how I use Twitter to develop my own learning. This role modeling should rub off as a model of professional behaviour and lifelong learning.
There is heaps of good practice out there of using Twitter in classroom settings (e.g. Kenny, Ollie), but how can these great examples be embedded and made sustainable?
Here are two options from my own department's experiments:
1. Pre-gather data over a number of days / weeks. The data can then be used by a number of classes. This removes the real-time element of the network, but could you repeat the same request 4 times in a day?
2. Follow 'celebrities' and use their travels and Tweets to provide the stimulus for work. For example, today I noticed that Mark Beaumont posted about his encounter with the Momotombo volcano
We used this in the spirit of 'Floating Topicality' - one tip to keep Geography dynamic (hat tip Jeff Stanfield). Pupils were then shown this image taken by Mark of the volcano.
Pupils were then asked to provide some information about the sight - using their research skills.
Another example is Stephen Fry's Tweet about the palm oil monoculture.
This technique can easily provide the stimulus for countless lessons during that week / day. In both of these example, the interactivity is lost a little. However, by getting pupils to share their products with the wider world, we would be creating a realistic need for a 'client'
Of course, the bottom line should always be on the learning outcomes: Does using Twitter create better learning opportunities? From a geographical point of view the answer is a resounding yes. Exploring data and responding the real world 'clients' is an excellent learning activity. Twitter also heps to break down walls.
How would you make the use of Twitter in classrooms sustainable across your curriculum, department or school?
As a curriculum leader it is vital that any teaching initiative can be applied across the whole age and ability range. As an eLearner it is important that other curriculum leaders and staff see that any initiative can easily and effectively embedded into the curriculum.
'What do you mean sir, you're still learning?'
Of course, using Twitter as a CPD tool for teachers is great, and I'm enjoying talking to pupils about how I use Twitter to develop my own learning. This role modeling should rub off as a model of professional behaviour and lifelong learning.
There is heaps of good practice out there of using Twitter in classroom settings (e.g. Kenny, Ollie), but how can these great examples be embedded and made sustainable?
Here are two options from my own department's experiments:
1. Pre-gather data over a number of days / weeks. The data can then be used by a number of classes. This removes the real-time element of the network, but could you repeat the same request 4 times in a day?
2. Follow 'celebrities' and use their travels and Tweets to provide the stimulus for work. For example, today I noticed that Mark Beaumont posted about his encounter with the Momotombo volcano
Volcano Twitter
View more presentations from David Rogers.
We used this in the spirit of 'Floating Topicality' - one tip to keep Geography dynamic (hat tip Jeff Stanfield). Pupils were then shown this image taken by Mark of the volcano.
Pupils were then asked to provide some information about the sight - using their research skills.
Another example is Stephen Fry's Tweet about the palm oil monoculture.
This technique can easily provide the stimulus for countless lessons during that week / day. In both of these example, the interactivity is lost a little. However, by getting pupils to share their products with the wider world, we would be creating a realistic need for a 'client'
Of course, the bottom line should always be on the learning outcomes: Does using Twitter create better learning opportunities? From a geographical point of view the answer is a resounding yes. Exploring data and responding the real world 'clients' is an excellent learning activity. Twitter also heps to break down walls.
How would you make the use of Twitter in classrooms sustainable across your curriculum, department or school?
If you could sacrifice the risk and excitement of authentic real-time and run the learning activity in simulation-mode it would be portable and scalable.
ReplyDeleteThis is what games and computer-based simulations do, of course: eg eight growing seasons in a one-hour lesson.
If the learning hinges on experiencing the messiness of the real world then we must suspend our fixation on pre-determined outcomes.
Also, how crucial is getting an immediate response from 'the client' audience? And is this realistic in demonstrating 'the world that waits' beyond the learning task?
It's not the technology of Twitter your learning is pursuing, it's the timeliness and timelessness of real-time information streams. You can't stop the clock.
Great fun!
Thanks for your comments - very thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteI guess it all come down to the learning objectives. If the objective is to expose learners to real time data collection and its problems, are there better ways? For example, the good old fashioned questionnaire or fieldtrip? If the objective is to process and analyse data, then the class need that data. Where Twitter (and facebook) come in is that they provide a real dataset that is geographically spread
With the immediate response - I think it's down to the ability of students. Some of the lower ability students that I teach would not want to wait. Also, only seeing the class once a week for an hour, there would be continuity issues.
The most important aspect of using any learning technique is that is can be used by anyone in the school. Using Twitter 'live' is not accessible - at least not yet!
A great debate!