Twitter can mean different things to different people. For me, Twitter is an online hangout where I can share tweets with anyone around the world, including my own friends and celebrities. I just created my Twitter account a week ago and it quickly caught on with me. I now use Twitter for many different purposes, including looking for my old high school friends, as well as tweeting celebrities, like Taylor Swift. However, the main reason that I have a Twitter account is for this class. This leads to the question of whether Twitter can work in classroom situations or not.
Twitter, like other social networking sites has its benefits in educational settings if it is done right, as mentioned in the video, "Social Networking Sites has Educational Benefits". Teachers can tweet to the students anytime, anywhere, and students can tweet to the teacher about their work and share blogs. According to the video, using Twitter can help students who have communication problems by improving communication skills between the teacher and students.
However, there still some nagging issues when using social media in the classroom. First, teachers need to set ground rules and monitor student usage constantly, in order to achieve its goals. Second, there are student privacy and content filtering issues, and not allowing students to waste their own time on Twitter, because many teens tend spend a lot of time on Twitter. If I were a teacher using Twitter to communicate to my students, I would only allow tweets from students that are related to the class and only allow approved educational content on my class Twitter page, meaning no offensive or off-topic tweets, like celebrity gossip or the funny stuff that many students look for.
Questions
1. What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of using Twitter in the classroom? Explain your answer.
Answer: The advantages of Twitter in the classroom are: More interaction between teacher and students, both inside and outside of the classroom, Can increase motivation and
encouragement to do their work, and improve student communication skills. The disadvantages of Twitter in the classroom are: Many students may use Twitter to waste their own time, not to study, issues with unsuitable content, seeing too much advertising, and privacy issues, such as meeting strangers that they do not know or trust.
2. How many teenagers (ages 13-17) in the United States have access to social networking sites (including Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google+, etc.)?
A. 75% B. 80% C. 90% D. 99%
Answer: C (90%).
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