Journal #8- "Have You Tweeted Today?"

Fingal, D. (2009). Have you tweeted today? Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(2). Retrieved on October 20, 2009 from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=September_October_No_2_3&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&NavMenuID=4381&ContentID=24192&DirectListComboInd=D

I have never been a Twitter fan, but I will say I am a Facebook fan. It is nice to be able to connect with people you have not seen for years, or just talk to your close friends while you are working on a paper. Though Twitter is a little different, it has a lot of similarities. What I find is nice about Twitter is you can connect with a whole group at one time. In our classroom, all the students are connected with one another so we can ask each other questions, and find out information if needed.
When you think about it, people are complaining about what Twitter is being used for like “bashing” on famous people but in reality that is why a lot of people have a Twitter page. I don’t think it really matters what people use it for, but in this case I think Twittering can be really useful in the classroom. When Beth spoke about how many of her colleagues did not approve I did understand why. A lot of younger students would then be subjected to what is on Twitter because they have one. I think there are positives and negatives to twitter. If I were a teacher I think I would rather use a Wiki page instead because this way parents would be more willing to access a Wiki more then a Twitter I would think.

Why do you think there are so many negatives about Twitter?
I think there is a bad reputation for Twitter because before I had one the only reason I heard people use it was to talk about famous people and what they had done that weekend. I think a lot of people want to use this site for school related issues, but will their students really be on it for the right reasons?

Would you use Twitter in your classroom?
I don’t think I would use Twitter only because I do think all the other things advertised on Twitter would distract the students. Not only for this reason, but for my reasoning’s earlier in the paper. I think that younger children being subjected to something like Twitter so young could actually be a bad thing. I could be very wrong, but I think I would rather use a Wiki page to keep in contact with everyone.