Twitter can be a useful tool for teacher development as well as teachers reaching students in new and creative ways. Twitter serves as a valuable microblogging tool that almost all young students are familiar with, as a result it would not require any extra time to teach the students how to use this free service. The article Teaching With Twitter provide many examples of professional development as well as examples of fun ways to make tweeting a part of the classes' assignments. some examples included how while attending conferences teachers can have discussions in the audience before the speaker ever finishes his discussion. The article suggested a fun activity like having students tweet while in character from a book or an important person from history.
These articles give some great ideas on how to use twitter for professional development, but for me I think my favorite way is using twitterchats to make connections with educational professionals from all over the world. While I find it a crazy fast paced discussion I think with time and experience using this tool it's possibilities are endless for new teachers. For classroom uses I enjoyed the examples given in the How Twitter Can Be Used as a Powerful Educational Tool article, my favorite being the example of the math teacher at the baseball game. I thought this example encompassed a really creative way to reach her students at the same time it allowed her to see how excited her students were to use twitter in this way. For me I see use in the future of any tool that can allow me to connect with experienced educators and allows me make a better connection with my students.
As teachers we have such a great opportunity to facilitate learning in creative ways!
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