https://anchor.fm/hitechpod/embed/episodes/20--How-to-Use-Short-Form-Assessments--Twitter-for-Education-e15ffod

This Week's App: Twitter for Education

What is Twitter for Education?

Twitter for Education is the concept of incorporating Twitter's platform into your academic practices.

There is no separate Twitter or extra features to purchase: simply design learning activities that leverage the affordances of the platform.

You can use their mobile app or just their browser version, but either way will have you and your students engaging one another and communities abroad in conversation around your learning materials.

What can it be used for?

The goal of using Twitter as a learning platform is to help learners engage in authentic communities and to challenge them to synthesize their thoughts in creative and short-form ways.

• Is your course engaging a specific speaker or series of authors? Have the students tweet them.
• Do you need your students to report on what they're finding in society? Have them take photos or videos of their findings and post them to Twitter.
• Do you need to aggregate a ton of different instructional content across the entire semester? Create a class hashtag for everyone to use.

The goal of using Twitter as a learning platform is to help learners engage in authentic communities and to challenge them to synthesize their thoughts in creative and short-form ways.

These ideas and more are the core ideas behind Twitter for Education.

How do I get started?

Sign up for a free Twitter account. Set up your profile, adding in a few details and a good picture of yourself. Establish class routines: take the time to learn how you want the students to interact. Will they only post to one another? Do they have to post during class? Should they only post outside of class? Can they use gifs? Are emojis acceptable? Do you expect them to write threads?

Model the behaviors you want to see from your students. If you know you want them to be informal and creative, then show them how you make those kinds of posts.

If you know there will be more formal interactions, then demonstrate how they should make posts that will meet your criteria.