Microblogging

Twitter is a compeletly new tool for me and I am still working on it although it's quite simple and self-explained. I didn't really like at first because I felt like it's quite similar with facebook and other tools. Also, many tweets I read are quite useless. But I started to see the postive side of Twitter. Usually the people you followed are those you are interested. Take me for example, my main interest is Teaching English to Non-native English Speakers. Therefore, I followed EFL Classroom 2.0 and several EFL teachers. Those people and I form a small network. In this small network, it's very easy to have an interactive conversation. "The effective part of Twitter is the immediate feedback when you have a question or comment that you need to 'get out there. " Therefore, I am thinking if I encounter any problem in teaching or any other areas, I could just post it on Twitter and I might be suprised by those responses given by my followers. Twitter serves as a great platform for teachers to exchange ideas and materials.

Frankly speaking, before I read those articles provided by Dr. Burgos, I have no idea of how to incorporate Twitter into teaching and learning. Since there is a word limitation for every tweet, I thought it wouldn't have much use in classroom. However, when I read Can we use Twitter for educational activities?, I was so suprised to find out so many usages. For instance, "It promotes writing as a fun activity. It fosters writing skills and develops literacy skills" All those educational uses mentioned in that article are great and I am willing to try them in my future classroom. But Twiiter also has limitations for classroom use. In Educators Test the Limits of Twitter Microblogging Tool, whether Twitter is safe for kid is discussed. Youth Twitter, a revised version of Twitter will allow teachers to edit students' tweets by granting them "adminstrator status". In this way, "teacher controls will allow educators to feel comfortable using the Twitter platform and to take advantage of its educational benefits."
http://tesl-ej.org/ej45/int.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2286799/Can-we-use-Twitter-for-educational-activities
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2008/06/24/01twitter_web.h02.html