BSW students' Twitter activity mentioned in Washington Post education article
Friday, June 26, 2009
A recent news article published by the Washington Post references the British School of Washington and how students are using Twitter in the classroom. The article, Some Professors' Jitters Over Twitter Are Easing, discusses how different colleges and universities are using Twitter, a popular micro-blogging and social networking service that allows users to "tweet" and provide instant communications feeds to those that subscribe to them.
At the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year, Mr Chris Horton, a Year 6 teacher at the British School of Washington, was trying to find the right communications tool to correspond with parents about the learning that was going on in the classroom. After discussions with the headmaster, fellow colleagues and reading a report recommending that all primary students should learn to blog and use Internet sites (Pupils 'should study Twitter', BBC News, 25 March 2009), Mr Horton and fellow Year 6 teacher Ms Jacob implemented Twitter feeds for their classes for the summer term.
Each class produces a tweet at the end of each lesson, recapping on what the students have learned, which also ensures that a quality plenary session takes place at the end of every lesson. Students themselves decide what should be written and how to summarize what they have learned in 140 characters, a practice which has also helped students write short, precise and detailed sentences. The discussions have provoked additional thoughtful discussions between the students in what they have learned and how their lessons can best be communicated to their followers. Emma, Year 6 student, says "I think Twitter is good because our parents can check up on what we did in school that day and when, for example, we write ‘Didn't do so good in our tests' or ‘Need to work on...', then we can go back and see if we have improved."
Parents who have signed up for the Twitter feed have found additional value in their students' tweets. Not only has it enabled students who are out sick to know what they are missing in the classroom, it allows students and parents to remember and review everything they have learned throughout a day or a week. Current parent Mrs Beale says, "I think Twitter is great - a wonderful way to stay plugged into what the children are doing during the day and a great antidote to the usual after-school question 'What did you do today?' with the response "Er...can't remember...nothing...' Now I can reply with 'Well, I saw that at 2:26 p.m. you were learning all about different types of bacteria'."
Though the current Twitter feed has only been available to approved followers (mostly current parents and administrators), Mr Horton and Ms Jacob will be reviewing the process for next year and to see how it could be used for marketing purposes to other constituents.
