Twitter

=**Twitter**= In this assignment, we were required to create a Twitter account and follow 5 people throughout this semester. All of the people are educators and for the most part tweet about academic issues or events. We then had to discuss our feelings about their posts.
 * My Twitter:**
 * 5 People I followed:**
 * Vicki Davis:** I think that her Twitter is very useful. She does a good job of tweeting frequently and providing good information in her tweets. I enjoy reading her tweets because she seems truly committed to integrating technology into her classroom. I also like how she constantly gives updates on what she is using in her classroom. I like how she shares a lot of the students' reactions too. Her Twitter is useful because she includes a lot of links to websites that are interesting regarding education. For instance, she recently posted a link to a website that gives kids' opinions on how they best learn. Also, she uses her Twitter as a platform to share interesting lesson plans in which Twitter can be used. I really enjoy this because I sometimes have a hard time thinking of how Twitter could properly be used in the classroom. I have to say that of all the people we were asked to follow, her Twitter is probably my favorite. She provides a good mix of her own opinions with the opinions of others. However, I like the fact that her Twitter is not just based solely on her opinions of technology in education. She does a great job of naturally adding information that could be useful to all teachers. I plan to continue following her. I think her ideas and tweets could be really beneficial to me in the future.
 * Kim Cofino:** I find it very interesting that she teaches at a school in Japan. She is obviously very knowledgeable and competent with incorporating technology with education. She also does a good job of tweeting fairly frequently. However, I feel like a number of her tweets are not very educational. While she may be talking to other teachers, I find that sometimes her tweets are very personal. I do like how she shows pictures of her students. For example, when they were doing reflections on the computer. She seems to be very dedicated and interested in the work she is doing. I enjoyed how she has some of her blog posting tweeted on Twitter. I really find it interesting to read about what the class she is in is doing in Japan. I think it would be awesome to go to another country and document what you do for other teachers. I just wish there were more of those types of posts instead of only personal thoughts/opinions, etc. Her twitter has a lot of good information that could be used, but I'm not sure that I would want a child to navigate through all of the personal tweets. I did enjoy this Twitter and some of her ideas. I particularly like her attitude of teaching though. I liked this Twitter, I just wish it was a little bit more towards the educational realm.
 * Richard Byrne:** I really like his Twitter. While he does add some personal tweets, they do not overwhelm his Twitter. I feel like from following him I have found out some good uses for technology in the classroom. I like reading his posts because even though he does not explicitly state it, I can tell that he has a love for integrating technology into the classroom. He also is very helpful with other teachers who are trying to do the same. I think it is cool to click on his google posts and see and read his ideas. It is awesome that he provides "Free Technology for Teachers." It is so unusual to have a person who is committed to helping teachers learn how to integrate technology into the classroom. He even gives free lesson plans and resources by clicking on his posts. I love getting ideas from teachers who actually care about the well-being of students. Also, he tweets a lot, which makes it easier to keep up with what he is posting. Even when he does post about his personal like he says so. This is useful because if you do not want to read about something that is not educational, you are warned. I plan on continuing to follow Richard. His ideas are good and he is so open to share. I hope to be as passionate about teaching and using technology as he is. I am glad to be following him.
 * Liz Bleich Davis:** I do not think her blog really taught me very much by following her. While she did post a few useful ideas, such as a YouTube video discussing iPads, I feel like she did not tweet very much. I know I should not be one to judge because I do not tweet very much, but she hardly does at all either. Also, some of the stuff she did tweet was irrelevant to education. For instance, when she discussed her daughter being able to raise an eyebrow, I do not think that really had anything to do with education. She also seemed to just reply back to other people instead of just putting her ideas out there for everyone to read. I felt like I was just reading her talk to her friends or co-workers. I would probably not be interested in following her if it were not for this class. She does not really post much useful information. She seems to just announce random events. There is not much technology being displayed for others to model. While she does seem truly passionate about education, I just do not feel like I learned that much from her Twitter. I feel like she was mostly engaging in conversations that I did not understand. That is her business, but I felt like this Twitter was a little bit more personal than educational. I understand that she probably does not have time to be on Twitter, but I feel if something is labeled educational then it should be just that. Overall, I think I learned more from the other Twitters.




 * Harold Blanco:** This Twitter had some very useful information. However, I feel like he did not tweet very often. When he did tweet, I felt like it was actually useful information. In my personal experience, it is understandable to not tweet a great deal. I do think it is important to worry about teaching rather than tweeting. From this Twitter, I just wish there was new information more often. I really like the information that he does put on there because I think it is very educational based. There are hardly any personal tweets, which is very refreshing. I do not want to go to an educational Twitter account to read about someone's personal life and conversations with friends. I like the posts on this Twitter because they are very brief, but contain links to more in-depth information. I like how he tells you what the article or link is going to be about briefly, and then you decide if it interest you or not. Once again, I really enjoy reading the links on how to better use Twitter in the classroom. As I have said, I am still trying to figure it out for myself. It is interesting to see the possibilities of how this social media network can be used for education. I also enjoyed reading the links about 21st Century Education. I liked how their were videos to watch instead of reading another article. Overall, I think this Twitter has a lot of great educational ideas for integrating technology and 21st Century Education into the classroom. I plan on continuing to follow and visit the Twitter account.


 * Reflection:** My overall opinion of this assignment is filled with mixed emotions. This is partly because I do not feel like I know what I am doing on Twitter. Throughout the semester, I have been trying to use Twitter more, but I am never completely sure of what I am doing. I like the assignment though because I felt like I got some good ideas of how Twitter could be used in education. For instance, Twitter can be good for education because you can filter who you follow and who follows you. You can apply settings that make Twitter must more safe for students. I would use Twitter in the classroom to encourage students to follow accounts that were beneficial to a particular subject we are studying at the time. This is a good way for students to stay up to date in a way that they will enjoy. Most students are already on Twitter, so this is a good way to keep them interested and engaged in topics that are currently be covered in class as well. It would also be neat for students to search Twitter and find tweets that they find relevant and then share their discoveries with the rest of the class. This would be a useful way to keep students involved in their learning. I think Twitter would best illustrate globalization. This is the case because students can follow people from other cultures and it opens their minds up to different problems and concerns. It also is just a good way to keep them connected with the outside world, because many students will not have the opportunity to travel to foreign places or even other places in the United States. I would improve this assignment by giving us more people to follow. I liked following these 5 educators, but it would have been nice to see more points of view. I would change some of the people we followed because as I stated before, I felt like some of them just Tweeted about personal things. I would not eliminate any elements of this assignment. I would expand on more uses of Twitter for education and possibly give some examples because I find that to be very interesting.