Unit 2: Twitter in the Social Studies Classroom
Objectives
- Participants will brainstorm verified and educational Twitter accounts that could be useful for a Social Studies classroom using a shared Google Doc.
- Participants will develop a lesson plan demonstrating a way they plan to use Twitter to enhance the education of their students.
- Participants will provide feedback for lesson plans shared through the discussion tab on wiki.
Mini-Lecture
Introduction
Twitter has become integrated into our culture today. Celebrities, politicians and businesses all share their opinions with the world through Twitter. More importantly, many of the students in your classroom may have a Twitter account. Sometimes they use it responsibly, but as mentioned in the last lesson, many of them do not fully understand digital citizenship. By utilizing Twitter in the classroom, we as educators can capture their interest and teacher them how to use it responsibly.
Twitter as a Resource
Twitter provides a resource for the students. There are thousands of accounts from verified and educational sources. Some examples are provided in the shared Google Doc for our activity for this unit. In addition to number of educational resources, current news tends to travel through Twitter. Twitter is an easy way to keep up to date on current events. This can be monitored through the sites use of hashtags, which allows the user to search by topic. Once an event becomes established, it will often times have a hashtag associated with it that can create dialogue between the Twitter users. It is important to remember that users of Twitter should be evaluating the source of a tweet in a similar matter as one would evaluate a news source. Does the source contain first hand information or is it a merely an opinion piece? These questions and more should be raised when viewing Tweets in regards to current events.
Also many politicians and political groups today have decided to use it as a way to spread their message. Often times, an entire political campaign can be spelled out through the use of Twitter. Students should be able to use Twitter to keep up to date on current politics and to help them form opinions for political debate. This ties together to not only make them good digital citizens, but citizens in general.
Finally, a number of schools use it as a way to send out messages to their students. Schools can create a Twitter account to quickly make announcements for upcoming events and scheduling information for the school. This works to keep students and parents informed about day to day activities in the school. A similar model can be used for the classroom to help keep students on task if they forget an assignment.
Twitter as a Tool
Twitter can a powerful tool for communication as well. To demonstrate watch these two video provided by CNN on Enrique Legaspi, teacher from California.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcxe9AZEcS0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ptr5d2rw8
Use these two videos to help get your creative juices flowing and share a lesson utilizing Twitter in the classroom!
Readings
Do
- Participants should provide 3 Twitter accounts that are verified as professional or educational in nature. Some examples would be the President or a news network. This will give you a list of resources that can be used through Twitter.
Google Doc On Twitter Resources
- Create a lesson plan that demonstrates your ability to use Twitter in the classroom. Using Google Docs create a lesson plan that can then be shared in our Discussion Tab on the wiki page. When you are done comment on another students lesson plan and give them some advice on the lesson.
Reflection
- Add an entry to your journal. How do you plan to use Twitter in your classroom? Is it worth the hassle of dealing with students who may be off task? What are some of resources you have come up with to use within Twitter? Try answering these for your journal entry.
References
AcademicArtistTV. 2011, June 22. Twitter in the Classroom on CNN. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ptr5d2rw8.
AcademicArtistTV. 2011, September 29. CNN Report, Twitter in the Classroom: Interview with Enrique. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcxe9AZEcS0.
Messner, K. (2009). Making a case for Twitter in the classroom. School Library Journal.