Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts

Friday, October 3, 2014

How I would use Twitter in my future language class


    Since I started to use twitter these days, I really found it potentially useful in my future class. As a language teacher in the future, the combination of language learning and online technology can be really helpful in my professional development. I get inspired by the twitter using experience and articles on how to properly use twitter for learning and teaching. The following ideas are how I might twitter for my own teaching.
    Twitter as a platform. Twitter is a large and free place for both teachers and students to express their opinions. They can use the hashtag to have a specific topic in language learning process, for example, challenge in learning, or cultural shock in different languages. They can even use the links and images to express themselves and share their resources. Just as mentioned in 35 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom, one of the interesting ways is to #10 come together. Since twitter is an open place to collect classroom view, they can come together, find each other, follow each other and help each other.

    Twitter as an online diary. My future students can use twitter as a diary book to keep track of their learning process. They can get help from others people, and of course, their teachers. Language leaning is a long and slow process. Using twitter can help students see their progress. For a teacher, I can use twitter as a research diary for my classroom findings, which is also one of the 35interesting ways to use twitter in the classroom. It is a good way to share process and offer instance feedback both for teachers and students.  
    Twitter as learning resources. I personally have the French learning experience by using online technology. I have the Chinese version of Twitter—weibo, to follow those French learning accounts. They often share the French-Chinese translation, French songs and French movies. Just as mentioned in the article Teach Paperless: Back to School: Ideas for Twitter in the Foreign Language Classroom, the author has her students use twitter for translation practice, and also uses it as formative assessment. I would prefer to encourage my students to follow other language accounts and get as many resources as possible. And they can identify their learning progress if they follow different accounts with different levels.

    Future classroom seems so interesting with the help of technology. Stop expecting; start doing now, future teachers! Technology cannot wait.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Twitter



    

    Twitter is new to me because I have never used twitter before. Twitter is also familiar to me because I have the Chinese version of twitter—weibo, which is almost the same with the twitter. I join the twitterchat #Edtechchat on Monday evening. I was at lost at the beginning even if I have read the guidance what is a twitterchat. The Edtechchat is a chat group organized by some educators, with a lot of twitter users who are interested in educational technology participating in it. This evening, we talked about the PLN (personal leaning network) experience like how connected educators help you in school and what is the most important one in PLN. I am thrilled by so many resources they share on the chat. I keep clicking on the “favorite” button to collect these useful resources for me. I am also glad that I was well welcomed by those chat members from education field and I joined in their question and reply pattern to discuss. The one hour chatting experience is awesome. Just as one of them said to me, we need to fasten the seatbelt for the 21C connected educators magic bus to start an exciting journey!
    Definitely this kind of twitterchat could be a good form of professional development for me. Firstly, twitter is a great place for sharing resources. I can easily click on the link I am interested in or just post the link I want to share. I can even retweet others’ resources to enhance the spread. Secondly, twitterchat provides us a platform to meet all kinds of people online. You can chat with those well-known educators or experts in the field you are interested in. And you don’t need to take the money and time to meet them; they can give you advice online and help you. Most importantly, also what I get inspired by tonight chat, is that I can make a lot of friends from the twitterchat. What a great thing it is to have friends with the same interest. Even in the one hour chat, I have more than 10 friends in education field. As a potential teacher, chatting with them can help me in my professional development, which will be motivation for me to join them in the future!