The Educational Beauty of Twitter By Andrew Ritenour

Twitter is quickly becoming one of the most widely used social networking tools in our generation. Users have the ability to “tweet” about things, allowing everybody who follows them to see it. This allows ordinary people to follow the actions of celebrities and friends quickly and easily.

TWITTER: NOT NECESSARILY A WASTE OF TIME

Many people consider “social” sites to be a legitimate waste of time. When I first discovered Twitter, I didn’t see any value in it. I figured that I had a Facebook page, and since Twitter seemed to be a glorified Facebook Status update, I decided that I really didn’t need an account. But Twitter, like most other online social venues, is what you make it. If you choose to use Twitter simply to tell your friends that you are eating Chinese food and going to class, then indeed it is a waste of time. But recently, Twitter has served as one of the most educational Web 2.0 tools I’ve ever encountered.

#MUSEDCHAT

My first encounter with the educational use of Twitter was in the #MusEdChat. This chat, which takes place every Monday at 8 pm EST, gives participants an opportunity to talk with music educators across the country, even across the world. This is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students. We have the opportunity through this chat to not only see how the things we learn in class are applied in the teaching world, but also allows us to see the everyday problems that teachers must overcome. Participants even have an opportunity to view transcripts and reviews of the chats to read over later. To learn how to participate in the #MusEdchat, check out: Music Education and Twitter?

Twitter and Conferences

This past week, I had the privilege to attend the PMEA 2010 State Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. While I was there, I along with hundreds of other teachers and undergraduates, was able to attend multiple sessions ranging anywhere from the use of technology in the classroom, to improving tone in high school and middle school bands – all presenting better and more efficient ways of teaching music. A lot of useful information was relayed in each of these sessions. The only downfall was that many of the sessions were held at the same time. Since we were only able to be at one place at a time, we could only learn from the sessions we attended… until Twitter. Many of the attendees and exhibitors at the PMEA State Conference tweeted experiences and thoughts on the sessions they attended to a common feed, distinguished by the hashtag #pmea10. By reviewing these tweets, we were all able to learn from sessions we never attended. This wasn’t limited to those who attended the conference, though. Anybody who followed the #pmea10 hashtag was able to see all of the tweets from the PMEA States Conference attendees as they were being tweeted! This created an opportunity for those not even at the conference to benefit from the sessions we were attending as well.

TWITTER AND EDUCATION

As you could imagine, this offers many opportunities in education at all levels. Imagine taking a field trip with a high school class to a museum. Teachers could assign students to tweet about areas of the musical instrument exhibit of the museum that are relevant to what is being taught in class. Imagine the educational benefit in showing the entire feed of the class’s tweets during class the day after the field trip, and discussing the relevance of what they learned. This is the perfect way to instill lessons into students’ episodic memory. While Twitter would offer a multitude of educational benefits, I must admit that I personally would not use it in a middle school and high school setting as it is now. The unfiltered nature of Twitter presents too many potential dangers to students of this age. The specific problem when involving students is the amount of profanity that is used on Twitter. While students will obviously encounter profanity, they shouldn’t be exposed to it using tools introduced to them in an educational setting. In addition, this could lead to problems with students sharing too much information on the internet.

If there were a way for parents to modify Twitter accounts, it would allow students to learn in a medium in which they are already used to communicating in. Parent or adult supervision over students’ Twitter accounts would ensure the safety of the student, while offering them an effective online learning community.

JOIN TWITTER!

As you can see, Twitter offers many educational opportunities to those who use it for that purpose. I strongly recommend that future music educators (and current music educators) sign up for Twitter. For those who already have Twitter accounts, use them to your advantage! There are so many music educators and experts who tweet about their experiences, challenges, and tips. Don’t know where to start? Check out Mustech.net‘s official list of music educators to follow on Twitter. You will be amazed at how much information comes to you once you start following some of these people!

Happy tweeting!

Make sure to check out Andrew Ritenour's blog!