Monday, September 17, 2012

Twitter is There When Technology is Scarce


"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" ~Albert Einstein

Three weeks into our new school year and I'm finally able to dig in and get to work. "Like new" renovation has been going on at our high school for years and this summer was supposed to be the last phase. Low and behold (things in construction never seem to go as planned), we came back to school to many frustrations: lack of computers in the labs and the new media center, delays on the installation of building-wide Wifi, and delays in ordering iPad and laptop carts for all departments. Everyone in the building is facing hardships, but as the technology integrator for the school, I am feeling particularly discouraged. I have been able to help teachers get up and running with their gradebooks, their websites and SmartBoards. So there's that.

One bit of technology that we do have available to us through all of this is Twitter, so we are on a mission to promote it to the staff and students.

This summer our librarian came up with an exciting idea. The library tweets a question every day on "A Year in the Life of a High School". Responses are collected and he will put it all together into a book. He's been tweeting every day and there has been some response, but we'd love more. Follow us @THStweets and join in the book project!

We are looking at other great ways that teachers and students can use Twitter in high school. Here are some of the ideas and resources I've found in my research:

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

100 Ways To Use Twitter In Education, By Degree Of Difficulty
http://edudemic.com/2012/04/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education-by-degree-of-difficulty/

5 Tips for Teachers Getting Started on Twitter
http://aboutteaching.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/getting-started-with-twitter-my-top-5-tips-for-teachers/

NEA - Can Tweeting Help Your Teaching?
http://www.nea.org/home/32641.htm

Some Educators to Follow on Twitter:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/top-15-educators-on-twitter.shtml

1 comment:

Colin Neenan said...

Rock on! Twitter is instant educational gratification. It needs to be understood.