On-Task Tweeting

Read This:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/education/13social.html?pagewanted=1&ref=education

And now read two caveats:

1. The classroom in the picture looks nothing like my classroom. We definitely don't sit in circles. Circles are for yuppie white kids--Montessori kids and Waldorf kids. Maybe it's a little shapist, but my school prefers rows. Now, you make the jump about the demographics of the classroom in the article's photo versus the demographics of my classroom. The inference shouldn't be too hard.

2. I hate technology in the classroom. More accurately: I am bad at technology in the classroom. My progressive, med-school-esque teacher-training program in Boston (http://matchschool.org/matchcorps/teacher.htm) emphasized the "Meat and Potatoes" lesson plan over the five-course meal. Scrap the Youtube clips and dance moves, just go for the basics: handouts, overhead transparencies, pencils, books. Technology makes me sweat. Literally. The projector works only 80% of the time, I'm constantly tripping over cords, kids can't see, and I never find the techno payoff to be that significant in terms of student achievement. If I can avoid technology, I do.

And now read some rambling:

Now that that's outta the way, this article is pretty cool. Prompting classroom discussion by use of Twitter feed? I just got a Twitter, so I'm finally hip to the hashtag (#EmmaandPaulandMajken). Like wifi on the airplane (seriously, how do they do that?), classroom-sanctioned tweeting makes me feel like I'm living in a futuristic robot world. Article says allowing kids to tweet their thoughts during classroom discussion increases respect, balance and participation. Everyone loves that stuff.

The teacher in the article makes a valid point that brings me back to my days behind rather than in front of the projector--a hypothetical seat I like to take once in a while for perspective. For a shy kid, piping up in a crowded classroom is unnerving. The discussion is fast-paced and dominated by the boisterous kids (you know the ones -- maybe you were one). For many kids, it's easy to sit back and let it flow without your input rather than inserting yourself. For some, this tendency holds true all the way to college--all the way to your career. It's to your advantage to nip it in the bud.

Most everyone thinks classroom discussion is important, so for years, teachers have tried to counteract the impulse to sit back by making participation trackers, homeworks that target discussion the next day and any other old-school strategies that prompt more equitable, but still high-quality, classroom discussion. It ain't easy.

So maybe tech's the answer, even if it makes me reapply deodorant at ten in the morning. If kids can participate virtually, a medium with which they're all too familiar, the discussion may become livelier and more balanced. It ensures that kids are adding their two cents even if they're really...not. Even if they're still silent during discussion. Silently tweeting, but still.

Maybe if kids are tweeting their smarts during class, they won't have to SEXT during class. They really do that; it's real.

Despite aforementioned perks, I'm not totally sold on the idea, and it's more than just technophobia. I think my hesitation relates to why I'm also not sold on the Kindle. You lose something real when you're typing or touch screening rather than talking or flipping pages. Discussion--classroom or otherwise--teaches eye contact, manners, elaboration and dissent. These are valuable skills that might get lost with over-reliance on your Twitter feed or any other social media turned classroom tool.

While I probably won't implement the twitter feed discussion any time soon, I respect it because it lines up well with my try-new-things philosophy--in life and in education reform. Technology is here to stay--so I better make peace--and if that means tweeting while teaching, I guess I dig.