I found this blog really interesting. I was instantly curious to find out how educators are engaging students to learn through twitter. I know from my own personal experience with twitter that most people who tweet share what is basically a "status update" on every single breathe they take during the course of their day. I am not too proud to admit that I too have tweeted in such a way. I found myself thinking twitter was super egotistical - who really cares what nail polish color you are looking at in CVS or what you had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? So, I don't tweet so much as I follow humorous or interesting accounts.

Only having this kind of experience with the world of twitter made me wonder how this blog was going to explain the role twitter is taking in classrooms. I was pleasantly surprised to see that educators see many benefits to connecting and sharing information with their students through live tweeting and sharing. I really liked that teachers were tweeting links to articles they were reading so that students who follow them could gain further knowledge and insight into the topics being learning about in class. I also really liked the use of live tweeting as a way to "take notes". It turns the notes into a conversation and forum for students.

The greatest thing, in my opinion, was that educators were teaching students HOW to use twitter to interact, engage, and share with others in a productive and enriching way. The blog specifically outlines how to utilize twitter in a manner that helps share meaningful ideas with people who share common interests and thoughts. The blog highlights really great key points to be aware of when setting up a twitter account as well as how to tweet purposefully and effectively.

Even though I enjoyed reading through this blog and the articles linked in it, I will probably not be using twitter with my students. I just would not be comfortable asking elementary school children to participate in learning via twitter because I think there is a lot of room for disaster and mistakes. Twitter can be a dangerous way to communicate if it is not used responsibly, and I'm not sure young children truly understand the repercussions of what they may post on a social forum such as twitter. Plus There is always the chance (very likely chance) that parents would be opposed to their child having twitter, which would not allow the whole class to participate in the learning and activities that would happen there. However, I think it is a great idea for college and university level learning!