Monthly Archives: November 2012

Twitter for Schools?

I recently finished Twitter for Good by by Diaz-Ortiz. There were many great ideas that I thought we could use so I approached my “go to” people to help me. These are a group of people who I have a great deal of admiration for and who often are ready to “jump in” when there is something to be done.

So I was surprised when none of them wanted to use twitter. Perhaps more than surprised. Of the six people I was talking to, all of them well respected and educated, none of them wanted to “jump in” to twitter. Moreover, none of them had ever used Twitter. They had a vague or rudimentary understanding of twitter. This, however, was enough to dissuade them from helping spread the use of twitter in our own work. There was a general fear of how twitter might be misused. How would possible communications between staff and students be monitored? Would staff need a principals permission to tweet about events at specific schools?

I don’t write this to “bad mouth” a group of people I honesty respect or air “dirty laundry ; I write this because I wonder “Are they overly cautious or am I naive”? I thought I was a late adopter of twitter; am I off base or cavalier about the use of twitter?

What are your concerns about using twitter in education?

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