Use Twitter for my own professional development and teaching

In the article The Teacher’s Guide to Twitter, it is said that ‘Twitter has proven itself to be an indispensable tool for educators around the globe’. There are many resources in Twitter. Based on the topics that we are interested in, we can follow people who will be useful in our professional development. Meanwhile, we can share resources that we find out with other people. This is proved in this article by the opinion ‘Create, Don’t Just Consume’. One great way of doing this is joining a Twitterchat. I never joined a chat like this before this course. After doing this, I noticed the significance of this kind of information exchanging. People can ask questions and get various answers from participants. Almost every participant will share his or her idea on that question. In the future, if I come across a problem and cannot find a solution, I can write it down on the chat group. I am sure I can get a number of creative answers.

Since Twitter is so convenient and helpful, I am sure I will use it in my teaching. After checking A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in your Classroom, I summarize several items I will use in my teaching. With the development of e-learning, I can set up a class twitter which teachers, students and parents can access and communicate. For example, I can use hashtags on Twitter so that students who were not able to make it to class can follow along and stay on top of the conversation. In addition to the assignments students were asked to do, I can put some extra ones for them. Every student has opportunity to post a question or reply to questions or topics. It seems that Twitter is a great tool for increasing communication and cooperative learning. Also, I will share various resources on Twitter. Students who want further study can track them and learn by themselves. Last but not least, parents can assess the Twitter so they can know what happened on their children. This is also a good platform for me to get in touch with them. In the whole process of using Twitter, I have to keep everything in order and make sure to update in time so that I will not miss important information.