For my first post on trainingzone.co.uk, I am sharing an infographic on Twitter which I have produced to highlight just a few things that make the social media platform a powerful tool for education. Please feel free to share it!
5 Things That Make Twitter A Powerful Tool For Education
1. The Power of the Hashtag – Do a hashtag search for any topic to find real time research data which can be studied or analysed further in class. If you are unsure of what hashtag is being used most to discuss a certain topic area, just search for a keyword and use the hashtag that people are quoting.
2. An Informal Learning Tool – Encourage your learners to connect on Twitter, and follow the things that interest them. For young people interested in science there is a big buzz on Twitter right now for STEM subjects, and if they were to follow the popular STEM Twitter accounts it could spark their interest and learning outside of the classroom even further in pursuit of their career goals.
3. Many Educators Already Use Twitter – Connect with people on Twitter and you can join in on conversations taking place on #edtech or #gbl (2 examples out of many more) with people all around the world. Educators often hold Q&A sessions on Twitter, in order to conduct their own research on upcoming or existing trends in education.
4. Make Learning Relevant To The World Around The Learner – Teaching certain subjects can often be fraught with difficulty if the person fails to see the relevance to their own life, or the application to their life in the future. Twitter is all about the world today, and the sharing of real world life experiences. Mix this in with your teaching and you can clearly demonstrate what an impact particular subjects have on the world, which the learner may not have realised before.
5. A Handy Tool – Twitter can be used to share data very easily This could take place in working groups who use a hashtag to collect each person’s data, or another example could be it’s use on a field trip to capture video, photo or research data to later analyse and evaluate back in the classroom.
Through my freelance service - http://www.chdigitalsolutions.co.uk, I support businesses in getting the best value out of learning technologies, including the use of social media for education.
