I have been a use of Facebook since 2005. I have been a part of Twitter since 2009. Blogging since 2008. Though it might seem as if I was behind on a few of those, I was generally ahead of most of the general population. Most of my students would also have joined up before the gen. pop. I love using these tools and going on the sites and blabbing about my day, what is on my mind, or just to get out a rant or share a link. I also use these sites to teach with, especially my Twitter.
has been around since 2006. It has grown in popularity ever since the celebrity buzz has made it popular. I joined the bandwagon a little late but I still find the site great - even better than Facebook in many ways. Being able to convey your message to an audience makes you think, use your creativity and ingenuity. Being able to RT (re-tweet) to someone or direct message them also makes it a practical technology.I have my students create twitter accounts based on historical individuals. They then have to tweet to each other and about their historical lives. I have had students create fictional presidential twitter accounts that talk about what their presidencies were all about as well as how they would have handled modern day affairs. The kids love to project and many of them actually create their own twitters because of it. It is authentic learning at its best.
But now, the inevitable has happened. Twitter might have jumped the shark.
My school is now on twitter, as well as people who I regard as digital dinosaurs. They are on twitter, they promote that they are but I don't think they are doing anything real with it. So, what is the point? Just to be a part of something but without really doing anything makes the whole situation ridiculous. I feel as if the whole idea of them being on twitter is disingenuous to the technology and those who actually use it. Just joining up for something and never using it is also wrong.
We need to make these products authentic and actually USE them. If we just had our students write them name of their papers but never fill out the rest, they would all fail. The similarity is there...
Hopefully, we all start using the products authentically otherwise I think we are doomed to stay in the 20th century.
2 comments:
Tim, this was a really interesting post ... I appreciated the "jump the shark" gif ... You make an excellent point of signing up for certain services and just never using them. I agree that it's a half-hearted attempt at being connected, when really you're just becoming another pawn in the system instead of someone with something important to say. I don't use Twitter, nor can I figure it out, but I am happy to hear that it's worked out in your classroom. The concept of personifying and bringing to life these 2-D historical figures from the textbook is awesome.
"We need to make these products authentic and actually USE them. If we just had our students write them name of their papers but never fill out the rest, they would all fail. The similarity is there..."
That is a great quote and I agree, we need to be real with our tools. They're not just there to look pretty or to say that we've signed up for them, that's it ... great comparison. Best of luck!!
Johanna
Thanks for your comment - it took me awhile to come up with that metaphor! I'm thrilled you like it...
I think as we move further and further from the 20th century and new crops of teachers replace the old guard, things will gradually get easier.
We have a person in charge for our school district and I already see a dramatic change in school culture and climate, as well as the acceptance of technology and the push towards it.
Time will tell, we just need to be patient.
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