Why I use twitter

Twitter used to be a place here I could see what my favourite celebrity was wearing, and thinking. It was a place to be a voyeur. Always watching, forever silent. I'm not entirely sure where I turned towards Twitter as an educational tool. I do remember why I started using it at school for my class. I had a "lovely" year 8 class, that had no passion for writing. They didn't see the point, they had no audience other than me, and writing had no purpose. They admitted only likeing writing if it was a text message, or a Facebook post. I wanted to give them an audience, and a social media platform that was relveant and real to them. I needed to give them an authentic reason to write. I couldn't use Facebook - it was blocked very rightly by our schools filter system. So @room9_BIS was launched. It was a way to share, and give them an audience. I thought they would be much more excited about using Twitter at school than they were. We tweeted a few things. Then radio silence fell. It was a bit of a fail for me. I felt that I had chosen something exciting for them, and their reaction was lack luster. I wrote it off after having to run it all myself. 

Looking back I wasn't ready to let it go, and give my students free range with social media. I decided to wait for the start of the school year, so I could start day 1 and make it rountine, expected and the norm. 2014 started with a bright faced, excited bunch of Y7 students. One of the first things we did was tweet how we were feeling. Once again I took control. I had to set expectations and be sure they were safe online before taking off the training wheels.

Whilst exploring our twitter feed as part of "@room9_BIS Twitter 101" we came across @mathspirates and the Maths like a Pirate challenges. Again we started tweeting, this time using the pirate challenge as our purpose for tweeting. They gave us a reason and an audience. This time I let go. I logged our classroom iPads onto our class twitter account and let them go after a brief chat about how we should act on Twitter. I was expecting one of them to slip up, make a mistake...but nothing. We have been using twitter in the classroom for most of the year and students have our class account signed in on their personal devices and there have been no issues. 

We communicate weekly with classes, educators and experts around New Zealand and the world. I would say daily, but sometimes we get busy. Inquiry presentations are easy to share - one click and then students are linked with a scientist or author. They ask questions, share exciting events or just write concise book reviews.

Personally I have a digital learning network I can ask questions of, or find resources of note. I personally and professionally using Twitter after the GAFE Sumit in Auckland earlier this year. I eventually want to become a Google Certified Teacher - advice given at the summit was you need to share and collaborate as part of a community, why not start already via Twitter. Thus ending my vouyerisum and started my fledgling status as a tweeter. Nothing like a little incentive to get people moving.