Friday, July 13, 2012
Can teachers take the monster out of Twitter?
Twitter is an absolute monster. It's scarier than Frankenstein, Dracula, or any other horror film character you can think of.
At least parents think so
What? You don't think Twitter is scary? Okay, maybe it isn't so scary to you, but if you've tried to get your students to use Twitter, you know what I mean.
Anytime I say I want to use Twitter, a chorus of students sings loudly, "My parents won't let me on Twitter." When I ask why, they say their parents are scared of Twitter.
Parents -- the adults, on whom we rely to make informed decisions -- think Twitter is unsafe. It's some sort of social media monster, waiting to devour children the second they click "follow."
Coping with the stigma
The problem is parents don't believe a social network like Twitter can be private. It's a stigma that social media applications are cursed with.
In order to get my students to use Twitter (outside of school only, because my district blocks Twitter), I blog about it on my classroom web site. Plus, I'll discuss it at open house, doing all I can to illustrate both the security and the educational value of Twitter.
Enlist students
Then, I get the students to help me. I show them the video linked above about Twitter privacy, and I teach them how to register safely for Twitter. Then, I encourage them to ask their parents to join Twitter and follow our classroom Twitter stream. With parents following both our classroom and their own children on Twitter, what could be safer?
With this approach, maybe we can take the monster out of Twitter.
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Comments
Discussing with parents and helping them understand the benefits is key to getting them on board. I think this teacher has a great approach to using Twitter in the classroom, and also think showing parents articles and videos on how it is actually used by teachers would benefit as well.
@schaefer12laura Like anything new, step by step understanding and communication is extremely helpful!
I think a lot of the fear comes from not knowing enough information about Twitter. Communication between student, teacher and parent is essential to cut down on possible misconceptions too. Reassuring about security and safety features is essential!
Twitter is an awesome resource for teachers, students, and parents. Because some parents may be a bit unsure of allowing their child to use Twitter; the more we can educate our parents and students about the value of twitter, the better off we all shall be. It's great to help the parents and students to understand that Twitter is a safe place and also help them to see that it is an awesome resource for great learning.
I think that parents fear putting their child at risk by exposing them to strangers, but most parents are just really unfamiliar with twitter and once they become familiar with it the might be less fearful. I think that administrators also have to become familiar with twitter so that they are comfortable and fully understand how this tool can work before they will overcome the fear of allowing students to use it.
People fear what they don't know. Students know far more about Twitter than many of their parents, and many of the people with whom I work. I taught a continuing education class last night and mentioned Twitter and everyone in the room rolled their eyes and moaned about how they would never use Twitter and how exposed everyone becomes on a site like Twitter. It wasn't until further discussion that they realized that it doesn't have to be that way. Educating parents and encouraging them to become involved in a classroom site makes the process of using Twitter with students much easier. I do believe that it is crucial to inform the parents through a newsletter, email, open house, or conferences that Twitter will be used and that students will be encouraged to participate. Open communication always fosters a better relationship and will likely help parents to keep more of an open mind.
Just like most things in life that people are afraid of, people are afraid of twitter because they don't understand it and don't have all the information. Taking advantage of every means possible of communicating with parents to get them on board is the most important part. Open house, conferences, emails, letters home with the students...any way to get the message across of how Twitter will be used as an educational tool in your class and how it will be set up so it will be safely done. Most of my students have Twitter accounts, so they understand how it works and the set up to keep it private, but the parents are the ones that need to be brought on board. I especially like the idea about encouraging them to follow the classroom Twitter.
Matthew Chamberlin - Our district currently blocks Twitter from being accessed. As for student use, I think the majority of the stigma is over. I work at a high school, and it appears that parents have little knowledge of what their children even do online. Many parents in fact, are unaware of the true possibilities of the internet, good and bad. Part of me is reactionary to this blog post. I think parents do still need to have some concern over what their kids do on the internet. Interestingly, I think Twitter is safer then Facebook because of the way all messages are public. It eliminates one to one messages that are personal to the point of being inappropriate. Twitter as a monster? It's a different kind of monster now. It's a media monster.
The "monster" is a great description for people who fear technology. Informing and educating are really what needs to be done in all school districts. As an educator becoming familiar with Twitter and all its possibilities, I want to use it, share it and become an expert at it. Prior to this course, as a parent, I can understand being nervous about my own children falling in to some inappropriate things. However, now that I know more, it wouldn't stop me from allowing them to use Twitter and other social media, as long as we set it up together and I had access to their information. We need to start with the higher ups in school districts to get the message out to communities.
Last year we started with Twitter available and then it was blocked for the rest of the year. This year, (today), I wrote to my principal and my IT director to ask what our upcoming policy will be for Twitter, cell phones, etc and also if i could be a part of helping write any policy. We also have a new superintendant so I have no idea how this will be received. I do think it would be good for districts to share their policies and what worked for them.
I know that some of my past parents would have enjoyed monitoring what their children were doing / supposed to be doing.
Unfortunately I don't see the parents as being as much of an obstacle as teachers and administration. So many are stuck in the lecture model they don't want to change. As for administrators, I've already sent one a link to video explaining the uses in the class. Hopefully, they'll want to see more.
A few years ago, a teacher in my building retired, proud of the fact that he both didn't know how to use a computer and never used one through all his teaching days.
Like Prometheus, its our role to now bring these gifts to the unknowing masses.
But remember what happened to him...
Prior to taking this Twitter course, I did not understand the amount of PD I could receive from it's usage. I have many ideas of ways I would like to use Twitter with foreign language. I have had concerns about students'/followers'/followings' posting or accessing inappropriate content and me not even knowing about it. I am glad there are safeguards out there to make it more private/secure, and I really believe that inviting and educating parents on it's usage is big!
I love this! Yes, I can for see many parents being hesitant if not totally against using social media in the classroom. I think knowing about the Privacy option will help tremendously. However, I am wondering what we do if students tweet something inappropriate or negative about another student. Wondering if there are any guidelines out there about the actions taken for inappropriate use of Twitter used by students? I think another struggle may be that parents or school districts will fight the use because there are many kids that cannot financially afford a phone or computer.... I do believe this article to be extremely helpful with this battle- but are there even more battles parents and/or districts will argue?
Susan Tenon comment - I was one of those parents that thought Twitter was unsafe and hated it. My daughter was on it and I didn't understand how it worked. I didn't know who all of these followers were and the mere speed of tweets was astounding. It was common for my daughter and her friend to tweet thousands of posts every month. Well, I understand Twitter a whole lot better now and my daughter is older and more mature, but I can totally understand the scary aspect of it.
I am very glad that we are addressing this issue in this course. I have so many ways in which I would love to use Twitter in my classroom, but my first thought is that some parents will not want their child to participate. Although some of my students are already using Twitter, I am looking forward to learning how I can teach all students to safely register. I also like the idea of inviting parents to join. I believe the parents fear stems from the unknown.
I have always also believed twitter to be unsafe I will have to explore this as a learning tool! Good to know can be used effectively.