Micro Blogging for Education

Sending the middle and high school students back to school this year, I noticed a distinct rise in the use of microblogging in the K-12 schools.  Microblogging seems to be occurring in various forms in the F2F school environment, but in my undergraduate online classroom, I barely use this format. Microblogging is a type of blogging where authors add content to their preferred platform in smaller, shorter text forms, videos or images.  It allows users to exchange ideas is small units, so it seems well suited for students who are trying to learn and understand new concepts because the micro delivery keeps topics focused and concise. Additionally, some schools use microblogging to deliver quick messages to parents. 

The principals in the middle and high schools in Montgomery County, Maryland use Twitter regularly to communicate with parents and the wider community. In fact, this set off quit controversy last winter when the superintendent of school’s decided to open school during a bout of below freezing temperatures and received some inappropriate Tweets from parents who felt he made the wrong decision. To his credit, the superintendent used the opportunity to begin a dialogue on cyber civility and modeling proper digital behavior. Here are some other examples of how principals using Tweeting to communicate with parents.

Inside the K-12 F2F classroom,  microblogging is used in productive ways. One AP Government teacher has a class Facebook page where she post all sorts of class announcements and holds study groups and review sessions. Students also use this page to communicate to each other expressly about the class to clarify homework assignments or discuss course content. The students are extremely responsive and the teacher notes that it is a unifying tool for the group. I have also seen a Freshman English class use Edmoto to run out-of-class discussion forums. The students are limited in their posting, so they are essentially create a microblog situation within their own Edmoto social network site.

In my online undergraduate history classes, I have not yet uncovered a way to use microblogging productively. Our discussion forums can take on the form of a microblog at times, creating a post and response or read/write feel of a microblog. Perhaps negotiating multiple social networking sites can be too much to ask adult students who are just returning to school and learning how to navigate an LMS for the first time. But, I may think of a way yet. 

In Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts, Richardson discusses safety and social learning. He notes that the teacher is responsible for keeping students safe in obvious ways, by not publishing names and faces, but most importantly by modeling appropriate use (13). Microblogging  really affords teachers the opportunity to model civil and safe behavior simply because it is so repetitive and requires so much direct adult involvement. Microblogging  demonstrates to students appropriate ways to use invaluable technology while teaching content. 

notes: 
 Richardson, W. Blogs, wikis and podcasts, and other powerful tools for classooms. Corwin publishers. Thousand Oaks, CA, 2010.