The article written by Hadley Ferguson titled "Join the Flock!" is very informative for anyone seeking information on social networking. Specifically this article focuses on one social network, Twitter. As a requirement for EDUC-422 every student created their own Twitter account. I had previous knowledge of what Twitter was, but never intended on using it especially as an educational tool. After reading this article you learn useful knowledge about the network. You learn what a PLN is, which "is a community of individuals around the world who are learning together. They can start out as strangers, people you couldn't pick out in a crowded room. But Twitter helps these strangers come together to create a community built on communication and collaboration dedicated to making learning and education the best it can be. Setting up my account was easy. As a class we now follow each other and share useful links and information by incorporating a has-tag to our group which is, #ed422. I created this personalized lists through my twitter account and that's the specific people I choose to follow. I found some of the Twitter twerminology to be creative and interesting.
Question 1: How is Twitter useful for teachers and students?
As we are experiencing the positive attributes that twitter contributes to the classroom, more than one aspect comes to my mind. It is a basic way to share with followers useful information, but it is also a great way to find answers. I like that when one of my classmates has a question on a specific assignment from class, and asks the teacher via twitter all viewers will be able to see the question and later the answer when the teacher responds. It is a fast way because most people have their smart phone set up to send tweets as a text. It is a fast way to be able to communicate with a group of people, or within a classroom atmosphere. Shannon McClintock describes tools that can be used as a twitter organizer such as Tweetdeck. I have yet to install tweetdeck onto my desktop, but after reading this article I see that it can be a very useful tool. It allows you to open as many columns as you want, and ou can delete them at anytime. The first thing I will d after writing this post is download the Tweetdeck app to my phone so I can personally explore its tool as an organizer.
Question 2: How often should I check my twitter account?
If you are not receiving notifications onto your smart phone from post on your twitter, it is important to check your account on a regular basis. Information can pile up and you will have to go back through cyber space time and make sure you did not miss viewing something that could have been important or useful. I recommend logging on daily, for all students and teachers who use this as a means of communication in a classroom, such as we do for EDUC 422...
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