Twitter Adventure


This week I explored Twitter as an educational resource tool and was pleased and surprised to find what I had been missing out on all this time!  
        
I first begin by simply using my #etec527 from the Educational Technology course I am currently taking to see what my fellow classmates had tweeted.  One of my classmates found a very useful article about Canva, a design program I have been wanting to explore more with and I found the tips in it very useful.  Another student shared an article which provided useful hashtags for educators, and another classmate shared some useful tips for using Peardeck, which I had used before, but found the lesson plan template that came with it very useful.

I also was able to view a few linked tweets from my professor, including "Ten Best Apps to Enhance Your Cognitive Ability and Keep Your Brain Sharp." From this link I discovered the app Lumioscity which I feel will be worth checking out as it is intended to boost creativity, and while I have a very strong working memory, I tend to go through bouts of "creativity block" where I have trouble with not getting inspired and only do the tasks at hand.  My instructor had also retweeted a "Maker Space" article entitled "The Maker-Movement in K-12 Education: A Guide to Emerging Research" which included further reading and articles on the Maker Movement, which I am very interested and enthusiastic about.



Finally, I just started searching technology tools into the search box and seeing not only ideas from the companies themselves, but extremely helpful examples and photos of how teachers were using these tools in their classrooms and lessons.  I got a good idea for how to use Google Jamboard that I had not tried before (using sticky notes to have students rewrite information chunks) and saw some cool creations that teachers had made using Nearpod.




The most enjoyable twitter rabbit trail I went on was when I started looking for Padlet ideas.  After exploring Padlet (which I had used before), that led me to @wakelet which was sort of like a combination of Padlet and Pinterest.  This led me to a Coding Wakelet which a teacher had created which had some amazing coding apps, the most intriguing of which was scratch.mit.org and scratchjr.org which I am eager to experiment this month with my own students.



I loved going on this Twitter Adventure, and got some great ideas for my own classroom.  The brief, rapid fire, snapshot nature of Twitter, allowed for a curiosity driven, stream of consciousness exploration, which made my journey feel organic and creatively freeing.  I will definitely remember Twitter as a valuable resource when I am in need of some new ideas and inspiration as an educator!


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