Mod 5

Here is the link: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2825/more-on-academic-twittering-breaking-down-the-classroom-walls

I found this article by searching “using micro-blogging in the classroom” Yahoo. The article is fairly short, but it attaches to a video post by a college professor who shares some of the advantages of using Twitter in the classroom. The interviewee, one Mr. Parry, a professor of Media and Communications from UT Dallas, points to the breaking down of classroom walls as one of the chief advantages of this tool. I see particular advantages for this in the language learning classroom. I feel very strongly about the need to engage the students’ interests in order to achieve effective activation in the classroom. By communicating with our students outside the walls of the school we can increase our knowledge of their likes and dislikes and hopefully tailor our lessons appropriately.

Mr. Parry also mentions the brevity of the communications in micro-blogging versus those of a traditional blog. Again returning to the issue of our students’ interests, I feel that this offers another advantage. Students today, especially teens, are more accustomed to a world of abbreviated messages. Many are turned off by wordiness. The text message like nature of the micro-blogging system may seem more familiar and therefore more comfortable to the modern student, at both the high school and college level.

I can definitely see myself using micro-blogging as a means to discuss issues with lessons and homework, as well as practice writing the target language outside of the classroom.