Skip to main content

Twitter -the alternative to a school / class webpage




Nowadays it is almost impossible to neglect the use of twitter as a communication resource. Today Twitter cannot be "avoided" in the ICT and ELT worlds.



USING TWITTER:

Pros

-Much simpler / quicker to set up and update than any other webpage or blog
-Messages are always short (140 word-limited per post) , hence readable...(as long as text conveys meaning), which directs us to another advantage:
-It forces the sender to be concise and accurate in the message he wants to deliver

Cons

-Writing to 140 characters could leads to bad grammar skills
-Privacy is at risk
-Public timelines read by this network user do not contribute to organised info, i.e. it hard to follow threads

The disadvantages mentioned above are not such, though.

Regarding the bad grammar, it must be considered that you -as a teacher/tutor will have to monitor every single tweet published in the network. In order to do this you can use private or direct messages or retweet tools "@"to get students to re-write properly / edit posts. You might even pre set a rule: RESPECT TO GRAMMAR , SPELLING and CORRECT VOCAB is to be observed (or else...you decide what comes after that...;)

As long as privacy is concerned, I think your students' tweets will have to be protected and their profiles very restricted.- In classroom situations it is better to have a private account. This might even help to prevent Twitter spam (students will have to be warned and encouraged to block those “followers” that have nothing to do with their classroom activities)

If we take the 3rd drawback into account, the solution is the use of hashtags (#)
They can transform your twitter page into a complete webpage (simpler from the graphics perspective)as hashtags can really work as different communication channels. For example #GroupKids1 or #ThePASTSIMPLEPractice #HW , etc.


Twitter can be at first glance a strange phenomenon and many don’t understand its purpose right away. However, Twitter is a powerful tool that is growing in popularity as word spreads of its potential capabilities. The idea of writing small blog posts of 140 characters or less to a group of your followers is actually a revolutionary new way to bring communities together, learn from each other, and keep updated with all that is happening.

Busy teachers may have found that Social Media practices are not only time consuming to learn but also to apply (as they are time consuming to "teach" as well). Blogs and resources alike might have been put off due to all that.
However microblogging platforms such as Twitter have come up to make ICT users' lives easier.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Video to practise the Present Simple with kids

Some of the bad aspects of teaching Grammar is when you feel your students find the practice activities really boring. I always say that sometimes students have to put up with boring grammar exercises. But they also have the right to see something different (and not so unattrative) from time to time. You can create a funny video to get them to do what you want them to practise: One thing I learnt while exploring the web is that you have to be on the alert all the time-you can discover extremely varied sites /tools / resources that will trigger further ideas. This happened to me when I came across this site and I tried it . Then you can always use sites like Classtools.net to create some activities. ( Process shots ) I once used the same video to get students to practise a harder exercise
1 comment
Read more

English Assisted by Computers. I mean it.

Great debates on the use of Technology have been on lately and they food for thought . The reading of those posts found me in front of my screen this morning, almost not remembering that I had to set up an activity for my pre intermediate teens who are dealing with the past simple forms these days. Here's how I exploited the computer / internet aids that I has at hand: I needed a song to deal with the PAST, so I asked "Google" for a famous song to practice the PAST TENSE (I didn't want to use the classic "Imagine" by J. Lennon) so there I was, asking for another classic...the feedback was immediate: "Summer nights" (from the musical Grease). Yes ! Lovely -I thought. So I looked for a clip on YouTube and the lyrics . The idea of a very long clip didn't sound appealing, so I used Chop Tube , a magic online tool to cut long YouTube vids short . And ...voilá ... this is the extract I decided to exploit with my students . I cut and pasted part of
Post a Comment
Read more

MODELO PLAN GENERAL DE ESTUDIO PARA NIÑOS NIVEL INICIAL

En English Studio se ofrecen diferentes planes de estudio para potenciales alumnos, todos basados en los intereses y expectativas de cada uno. La imagen de abajo es solamente un modelo de planificación de una propuesta destinada a un niño de ocho / nueve años, con un segundo o tercer grado de escuela común finalizado. Con un ritmo normal de aprendizaje, en tres ciclos distribuidos a lo largo de seis, siete u ocho años de estudio, un alumno que inicia el idioma inglés con ocho años de edad podrá ser capaz de alcanzar un nivel B2 del idioma.     Los siguientes 3 documentos de texto  explican los niveles generales de inglés de acuerdo al marco europeo de lenguas, el cual es un standard internacional usuado anivel MUNDIAL. English Studio se ajusta al mismo en el diseño de todos sus cursos desde el año 2000 .
Post a Comment
Read more