A year ago when I was talking to my class about Twitter they all looked at me as if I was MAD! Last week I did much the same thing with a different bunch of 9 and 10 year olds and, things have changed – only about half of them looked at me as if I was totally BARMY!
So what has been the difference? What has changed so much in the last year to effect children in my class?
Simply put, I think there has been a huge increase in the number of times Twitter has been referred to in mainstream media. I have heard Radio 1 DJs discussing it and I even saw Chris Moyles’ Twitter account when he had 55 followers, later that day he had 55,000! Our local commercial radio here in Nottingham has also been on about it – on the same day I heard both the morning and drivetime show talking about Twitter.
Photo credit to Matt Hamm
This is of course just part of the bigger picture for our kids but I think it makes a huge difference. My class are confident, social, inquisitive internet users who will happily explore new resources and sites. About 10 percent knew about Facebook and had been using Mum’s or bigger sister’s/brother’s account.
The “older sibling effect” is an interesting one. Although it may only effect a percentage of my class their awareness of these social networking sites has been raised by those in Year 7, 8 and 9 who are regular users. Combined with the fact that social media seems to be becoming less “fringe” makes our 9 year olds much more aware.
So is it up to us in primary education to teach and guide the children on how to use these appropriately? I think it is.
Not many of my class could actually explain what Twitter was, or indeed Facebook, which at best was “a place to look at pictures of your friends and class mates.” I don’t think my class is particularly different from those around the country, and so next year I can probably expect even more children knowing about these sites as I think even more mainstream space will be filled by them.
Unless the mainstream of primary education addresses this then children’s awareness and use of social media will always be (as it is now) 10, 20, 1000 steps ahead of the type of education they are entitled to. I am not talking about lessons on how to get the most from your Facebook account for 9 year olds, but time to raise their awareness. An opportunity for us to show positive examples, to build their knowledge and understanding and help them make better choices in the future.
Do you have a class of primary children? Do they know about Twitter, Facebook and social networking sites? How can our curriculum best adapt to these changing times? Can it?!
Tom, I think it is definitely our responsibility to teach young children how to use it responsibly. I hear many educators rail against this notion– saying it is their job to teach math or English, not computers and Internet safety. I think, as ed tech professionals, it is our jobs to help move the shift along. Children had to learn how to respect other tools in the classrooms– this is no different. Just like we teach our toddlers to not tear pages out of a book, we need to teach our young children to respect technology in the same way. It is the same game as always, just with different equipment. I think it will happen when we really start seeing true integration as the norm and not the outstanding instance.
Tom,
Thank you for your post. I am currently working on a PhD in Educational Studies/Curriculum & Instruction. My research interests are media literacy and ICTs, specifically, PLNs.
You make some great comments: So is it up to us in primary education to teach and guide the children on how to use these appropriately? I think it is. AND An opportunity for us to show positive examples, to build their knowledge and understanding and help them make better choices in the future.
I totally agree! It is our responsibility, and we owe it to our students. You have combined my two passions–media literacy and PLNs! Thank you for helping me think this through.
Debbie
St. Louis, MO USA
Hi Tom,
I’m with twitter since May 08 and, by then, I couldn’t make my young students join me, because it was allowed just to more than 13 years old.
Now, I have been reading “Twitter in the classroom” and I came to discover that it is already possible to have my kids on twitter.
That’s great news, I only wish to be totally sure that it’s entirely safe for under 13.
Could you please confirm it to me? I would be very grateful.
Sue Waters explained how to subscribe our students to different sites without using their own e-mails, but only our g-mail followed by a + then our student’s name, then @gmail.com.
That’s how I put them all “inside” our class blog.
May I use this trick on Twitter too?
Thank you!
Very timely post…I just posted a similar entry (more in reference to the professional development benefits of using Twitter, etc.), but your entry articulates what is currently in my head while working with my students (5th Grade-9&10yo). After jumping into the Twitter world a few months ago, I’ve been trying to find the best tools to use in fostering collaborative efforts between students. We’ve tried our hand with a new wiki (very useful, but not as instant and engaging as Twitter), we have a class blog (they LOVE this, but our current filters are not predictable..I’m confident this will be a great extension to what we are doing in our class), but we currently don’t have a forum for reaching further out into the world. The idea of that really excites the students. They have seen the power through a Twitter Poll I did to gather information for them. They also are enjoying seeing the blogs reach by watching the clustermap and they are certainly enjoying challenging global peers on Tutpup. There is indisputable power in expanding to a global audience. Due to the “sibling effect” you mentioned, many of my students are aware (and even have) Myspace accounts (finding their parents have Facebook…so they know it too); others though, have never heard of either. If we don’t start discussing 21st century skills and resources in these middle grades, I fear the gap will resemble what we see with early learners’ literacy and math skills leaving us reacting to a growing problem. Thanks for keeping me thinking.
@Melissa Smith – “I can envision a student like twitter, where classes/students can set up accounts and work together, ask questions, take polls and surveys, and advertise or showcase their learning projects.”
There is a tool called Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) that is essentially Twitter for education. Its website says it is “Free, private Microblogging for education. That being said, I have yet to try it out as I am just starting my journey of becoming a teacher. I hope this helps.
Tom,
If it wasn’t for Twiiter, I never would have virtually met you. I’ve enjoyed collaborating in Google Docs, especially with Google Earth and I really enjoy watching you take your students to levels some of my Teachers only dream about. Your students are so innovative and inquisitive …love hearing about all of your learning!
Your St. Louis Missouri, USA friend,
Cindy
I raised a question about this in my blog http://ovenell-carter.com/blog/2009/01/31/youre-never-too-old-to-learn-but-you-might-be-too-young/ I am interested in creating a model of web 2.0 education that accounts for age and child psycho-ed development. Briefly put, I think we could make a strong argument not introduce the “write” part of read-write web until grade 9 or 10. Younger grades would still learn to read the web. I”d appreciate your thoughts
Best,
Brad
I find this post quite interesting. My faculty just completed a professional development retreat where we focused on 21st Century learning; looking at our report cards and how we need to change our teaching styles. The tech department showed Twitter, and had 9 requests for help on establishing their twitter account and how to set up their own PLNs within the hour. Later that morning, the conversation at my table went to how can we use this tool in the classroom. The fear became that of how can I control what blurbs are posted by others on my twitter feeds. I expressed that I have yet to receive any twitter comment that as inappropriate for little ones to read and then I stopped as laughed because I just realized how much better this tool is for teachers than the other social networks I play with. My facebook has friends from my past that post comments and pictures about their social lives. And even on Classroom 2.0 (which I love!) I have gotten “invitations” to be friends with young men hooking up with women. But not anything like that has happened on Twitter. It really is a nice professional social network. People on this really communicate, support, share, teach, help and interact with one another. My tech team member posted a help plea for others to view her 2nd grade voicethread and was excitedly dancing around when people were leaving comments and questions for the students. Twitter in the classroom is great! It is the best tool for building that global connection, a great tool for collaborating with others. I can envision a student like twitter, where classes/students can set up accounts and work together, ask questions, take polls and surveys, and advertise or showcase their learning projects.