TWEET ALL ABOUT IT: Need a great intro to Twitter? Kudos to Ms. Amber Coggin, who has created two short and sweet guides to using Twitter and Facebook. Snap 'em up here!
Last week EdSurge sponsored its first "tweet chat," focused on what tools help educators teach languages. We will run our next tweet chat on March 5. About what, you ask? Suggest a topic here. Added bonus: if it's about tools, we'll put together a cheatsheet on tools such as this on learning languages.
In the meantime, we enjoyed lurking at this February 16th tweetchat (#teaching2030) orchestrated by Center for Teaching Quality. The Center kicked off with a smart portfolio of blog posts about how technology is changing teaching.
Mr. Malley from Buffalo observed: "language arts has always been about communication... Technology has not changed this, but it has enhanced my students' ability to tell tangible and powerful stories..."
Mr. Ochsner challenged technology companies to pay more attention to what teachers want and need. And Mr. Pronovost, citing Steven Anderson (@web20classrom), declared "If technology is the focus of your classroom, you're doing it wrong."
Training is key. "I believe we go about it backwards," tweeted Ms. Barnett. "Teachers must use tech in their lives before trying to use as teaching strategy." In a blog post, Ms. Magiera added that "professional development needs to reflect the best practices we use for teaching our own students--it must be differentiated, time-efficient, and hands-on."
Worth repeating: Mr. Ferriter's point that "..driving change in schools means remembering that technology alone isn't revolutionary. Technology just makes it possible for teachers and students to do revolutionary things."
Doing a tweet-chat you want to share? Clue us in here.
