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Twitter Alternative Assignment

Twitter is a fantastic social media to connect with people at the moment. I honestly

don’t know any social media that even comes close to twitter in the way they deliver news

and keep people up to date. I am an avid Twitter user, it’s a part of my everyday life and the

only reason I am doing this alternate assignment instead of the Twitter chat is because I am

going out of town and a perspective paper is just more convenient. Using Twitter I feel like I

get more accurate information in the world around me, if a major event happens we get to see

all the different perspectives of people that were actually there when it happened. I also get

news faster than any traditional news outlet and it is “unfiltered” so I get to make my own

opinions from what I see. There are many ways we, as educators, can use Twitter as a tool in

our classes; Student collaboration is the first that comes to mind but also organizing contests,

writing mini-reviews, surveying students, sending reminders and in my experience, it is my

go-to research tool for current events.

Educators and direct students to twitter to collaborate through class hashtags. This is a

great exercise to teach them how to keep all their findings in one place. Twitter also keeps

track of the date and sometimes even the time someone posted something, this is a great tool

for teachers to check in a see who is truly collaborating and “carrying their own weight”

versus the students that maybe need to be reminded before or after class that they need to

start picking up the pace. A live google document is a fantastic alternative to this aspect of

Twitter. As a college student, I have had more group projects than I can count and I have

only ever worked with live word documents or a google doc that we all share. Everyone in
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the group has access to it and we add links, summaries and it also tells you who did what and

when.

Organizing contests and mini-reviews, Twitter would be great for this. Educators

could use this as an incentive for students to be more active in their schoolwork outside of

school. I would assign readings, book chapters, or even museum exhibitions for extra credit.

After that, I would tell all my students if they complete the extra credit assignment by a

certain date they get the points. This activity is great because Twitter has a 280-character

limit so it’s not a lengthy assignment which means it’s easy for me to grade. A good

alternative application to this assignment is group me. The only problem I see with this is

that there is no character limit and I can see it becoming hectic to look through all the posts.

Personally, if I were to assign an extra credit assignment like this I would ask for a physical

copy or a "turn it in" link. This would minimize the risk of cheating since with a Twitter chat

and a group me every post that I can see, my students can see as well.

Surveying students and sending reminders. This is a great tool because twitter has

polls, and they are anonymous for both the voter and the maker. Students can safely vote

without feeling embarrassed with their answers. Sending reminders on Twitter is a little

tricky but not impossible. How I would go about it is; I would make a class hashtag and then

make all my students follow it that way it is the first thing they see on their feed when they

open Twitter. As an alternative, I would just use group me or remind for class reminders and

any other surveying program and just do that at the end of class as an “exit ticket.”

Finally using Twitter to stay up to date in current events. Now, this I don’t have an

alternative for, twitter just excels in fast news. As an educator, I would have my students get

me a quote, article, or video about something going on in the world as a class warm-up. For a
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research paper or project, I would give my students full creative freedom on where they want

to pull their information from, so long as they are credible sources and they are cited

correctly.

I think Twitter is a great tool for educators to use because it is an all-in-one social

media. From surveying students to class collaboration twitter has it all but like I have

mentioned there are great alternatives out there for the educators that may not want to use

Twitter in their curriculum. I think I will count myself in as one of those educators. This may

come as a surprise because I know I mentioned that Twitter is my most used social media

app but my ideal grade to teach is 6th and 7th grade. I understand that there are kids out there

will social media but some don’t, either by choice or because of their parents. Both are very

valid and it is not my job to introduce these kids to social media or to try and convince

parents to let their 12-year-old sign up for a Twitter account. If I was a high school teacher or

a college professor I would give it more of a chance but using social media will not be a

requirement in my future class