I am a little unsure of how to use twitter in a classroom setting still. I am sure after really looking through a lot of the teacher pages listed on the wiki, twiiter4teachers, that I may find a way. The ones I have looked at so far under the art section have not been super useful so far but I am hoping to find some better ones once I dig a little bit deeper or even find some on my own.
I also found that you can go directly to a website and many of them have links to follow them on Twitter. This way was a lot easier for me to find things because it was very clear what I was following. I am having a hard time getting the search feature to work though. I have been trying to find the Denver Art Museum on Twitter and the search does not even bring up any Denver Art related items, so I am not sure why it is not working. My husband searched for it on his twitter account and found it right away. There is quite a bit to sort through.
This may be useful if you were having a class follow a particular artist, a museum or event. I am not sure that you could follow a person 100% of the time though because they may not post things that would be acceptable for students to be viewing. This is why a museum or professional association of some sort may be the best thing to follow. It may also be neat to make up a user and pretend to be a character in a story that students can follow what is happening daily or even put thoughts the character may have throughout a story in the tweet. It would allow a chance for students to connect with characters in the stories they are hearing. I hope that makes sense.
Samantha, We only intended for you to look at Twitter as a means of developing a professional learning network - not for classroom use. Unfortunately, the district is still not ready to open this for students.
ReplyDeleteThe reason you couldn't find the Denver Art Museum in your search is because they created a user name with no spaces. (DenverArtMuseum). I had the same problem. When I entered just Denver and Art, it found the account.
If you are interested in learning more about Twitter, let me know. I find it to be the most valuable tool in my toolbox because of all the great connections with educators, and learning about so many fantastic resources and strategies from them. I could help you connect with art teachers who share lesson ideas, resources, and strategies on a regular basis. :-)
Another thing about Twitter is that it is not intended for you to read every post of everyone you follow - it is not the same as email. I simply browse what is in my Twitter stream at any given point in time that I have a chance to check it. I always find gems! Rarely do I go back in time to see what someone posted earlier in the day - or on another day. That would be impossible to keep up with!