TT1351: Twitter in the Classroom #HelloWorld

This week I signed up for a Twitter account, a mere 7 years after the site launched.  I had never been interested in using it for social purposes, but hadn't considered it for educational purposes.

So how could Twitter be used as an educational tool?  Lots of people have already come up with long lists of ways that it can be used:

• http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom
• http://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/02/100-ways-to-teach-with-twitter/
• http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/10/50-plus-tips-on-how-to-use-twitter-in.html

Looking at these lists, I'm still not sure how to use it in my classes.  I think in classes where current events are discussed or career/networking topics, it could play a clear role.  Also, in a more discussion based class it could be used for conducting quick surveys or having out-of-class discussions.  But how are you going to do math on twitter?  Students have enough trouble typing math in a discussion board posting or even a word document, are they going to do this in a tweet?  Possible ways that it could be used might be posting announcements or calendar reminders or having students summarize a section.

One concern I have been pondering is having multiple log-ins for students to get to course content/assignments/announcements, but it seems there are some ways to integrate Blackboard and Twitter to have a feed on your course homepage (http://library.uoregon.edu/scis/blackboard/faq/instructors/i77.html or http://www.socialbrite.org/2010/11/09/top-10-social-media-dashboard-tools/).  Another concern is managing separate personal and professional accounts, as you can have multiple accounts but there is no way to have one common feed (https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169956-managing-multiple-twitter-accounts)

From a professional development standpoint, I'm excited about some of the resources I've found on Twitter.  I've found a number of math professionals as well as math organizations to follow, many of which seem to post regularly.  This collection of articles and lesson ideas is a great resource, and something I plan to continue to check.