I can’t quite articulate why, but I feel there’s some definite metacognitive value to it. Perhaps the “bite-sizedness” of tweets might appeal to students – I’ve always found it a valuable exercise to impose limits on students from time to time (e.g., summarize Act I of Hamlet in a haiku) in order to get them to flex their creative muscles a bit. I’m wondering if there’s something to this Twitter that can combine that limiting aspect with the metacognitive aspect for something positive.

It’s been said elsewhere that Twitter probably works best for people with an established community of fellow Twitterers (Tweeters? Twits?), so I’m wondering if there’s something to having a class all sign up for Twitter accounts and tweet from the perspective of a character in a story. Perhaps having students maintain a Twitter log for a week (Twitter archives all your posts, much like a blog) and require responses between Twitterers to foster that metacognitive thinking along with communication.

The facelessness of it all may also help break down some social barriers; I found this to be the case when I moved some assignments online in one of my courses this past year. From a counseling/social skills standpoint, could this be helpful to institute at the middle school level, when cliques seem to rule some schools’ social scene? It’s nothing that couldn’t be done in other mediums, of course, but it’s something novel that may engage kids. I’m just thinking out loud here; it won’t change the world, but could there be value to it? Sure.

Oh, and I heartily second Melanie’s advice to check out http://www.twittervision.com . Inexplicably fascinating in its banality – I watched those tweets pop up from all over the world for far longer than I care to admit.

So, Kim, you said that you doubt you’ll give a try. Please understand that I admire you for your well written and inspiring blog (and you are my new hero), but I wonder what turned you off from actually trying it? As a staff developer, I hear from teachers “that’s cool, but I doubt I’ll use it”. Maybe they aren’t seeing the educational impact? That could be my fault. Maybe they aren’t getting the importance? I often think that if it is important to administrators, it will be important to teachers–whether they like it or not. Most times I hear, “I just don’t have the time”. We’ve been there, teaching took all of my time and all of my energy, but I think it came down to what was important to me. I noticed that when I used technology with my students they were more engaged and actually wanted to do their school work. Years ago, a student emailed me on a Saturday night to ask a question about inserting music in a PowerPoint. That spoke volumes to me. I’ve recently gotten in touch with some of my ex-students who are on Facebook now. They say that they can’t believe their 7th grade teacher is on Facebook. I say, why not?

So, I have the same question as you. I am teaching the classes, offering the tech support, but the success rate of integration is not satisfying me. What can I do to help teachers “get it”?

One thing that has helped. I try to keep it all in perspective and remember that teachers are my students now. They all have a starting point. What’s important is that they are growing from that baseline and learning. It’s not enough to say that they have had a great website for 3 years. What have you done lately to further your learning? I use this chart from ACOT:
http://www.nylearns.org/webpage/viewpage.aspx?ID=135878&UID=28033

to help teachers gauge where they are and where they are going. Note: I got this from Wesley Fryer’s blog “Moving at the Speed of Creativity”: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

Back to twitter, I found this: twittervision.com and it shows all of the “tweets” on a map as they are coming in. It was pretty cool to watch, but I doubt I’ll use it….just kidding.

Lastly, on a personal note, sorry I wasn’t there the last day of HSNF to help you with your blog and iPod. I hear Andy was quite helpful and see you got help from someone else for the blog. Drop me an email if you have anymore questions!