Journal #2: Join the Flock (NETS-T: 1,2,3,5)

Ferguson, H. (210). Join the flock. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx 

In this day and age, information is readily available and literally just a “click” away, but how do we go about utilizing and processing all this information?  Shannon McClintock and Hadley Ferguson suggest that we “Join the Flock!” In their article, Ferguson and McClintock, discuss how to use twitter as a tool for building a “collaborative community,” where you can, not only, share your own ideas, but also gather information from others’ ideas. Ferguson discusses “how” to join this flock, suggesting that we create profiles, follow colleagues and people with similar interests, build a network, and create lists. Essentially, we need to build a unique profile, which holds and pinpoints all the information that we are interested in. Ferguson stresses the idea that with twitter you don’t have to share your ideas, “you can simply follow people and not say a word. Just read the tweets, click on links to blogs, and learn.” Twitter is an excellent source for not only learning, but also for sharing ideas; it is all a matter of how you use it.  McClintock describes how to maximize this learning, through use of a twitter organizer, hashtags, and lists to access valuable and pertinent information.

Question 1: How would you effectively use twitter within the classroom? I would use twitter as a primary device for keeping the lines of communication open between my class and me. I would create a class hashatag to help student’s access infromation and use tweets to post answers or helpful homework hints.

Question 2: What is something you learned about twitter? I used how to manage and effectively use a “twitter organizer.” I never knew there was such a thing, let alone what to do with it!