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Embracing Twitter in the classroom


Johannesburg, 17 Oct 2011

Twitter has been voted the number one educational tool for the past five years by the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies.

This is according to Maggie Verster, educational technologist at ICT 4 Champions, who is hoping to have 500 South African teachers active on Twitter by the end of November.

Verster, who used to work as a teacher, says Twitter can be used by teachers to access a global network of educators, share resources and access statistical information. She adds that it can also be used in the classroom to engage students, and to run polls and questionnaires.

According to Verster, there are a few South African schools that have started “dabbling” with Twitter. She argues that in classrooms where Twitter is being used, teachers are seeing encouraging results - the students are excited and engaged.

Verster argues that children spend a lot of time on their phones, and therefore have to be engaged on this medium. Verster also reasons that because tweets are restricted to 140 characters, students are forced to summarise information, which teaches them higher-order thinking skills.

Twitter is also good for teachers in terms of professional development, says Verster. She explains that Twitter is a medium for teachers to share resources and ask for advice.

What's the hold up?

Verster says there are a few factors that are preventing teachers from using ICT in their classrooms. Connectivity is one of those, as it is not consistent in SA, she points out. At the same time, she says, schools that have used Twitter successfully are shy about the results, because there is a perception that cellphones should not be used in the classroom.

She adds that teachers are intimidated by technology. According to her, while teachers are often unsure of technology, the students are “digital natives”. Verster says this is why she is on a mission to get teachers to make use of Twitter. “It's a simple tool, and it doesn't use a lot of bandwidth,” she concludes.

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