Module 4, Assignment 5

     I'm very proud of myself.  I played with twitter.  The hash tag is great.  I love the way it brings up so much new information.  I'm finally getting a better idea of how useful this may be.  Although, I am not one to broadcast some of my deepest thoughts on the internet.  I love how with a simple #, a person can bring so many sources of information right to their finger tips. 
     These new social networking applications are not going away.  In a few years, there will be another huge, new craze in social networking like Facebook and MySpace were just a few years ago.  One of these articles points out that Twitter brings the world into your classroom.  The only problem with this is that Henry County will not allow teachers access to the site.  I find myself googling things in my classroom at all times.  Small children ask so many questions, and I admit freely that I don't know all the answers.  With Twitter, a teacher can type in a key word with a hash tag and get real-time updated information.  Where was this when I was little?  This sure beats the response of because I said so that I received as child.  The article also pointed out how easily twitter helps communication between school and home.  I am seriously considering using Twitter in this capacity next year.  Thirdly, Twitter can give the educator real-time professional development.  The only problem I could see with this would be the validity of the source.  You would have to be sure that the person you are following has experience and the qualifications to present the information because in cyberspace, you never truly know who you are talking to.  The twitter user and educator can create a customized professional network.  You can easily communicate with your co-teacher down the hall.  This is a wonderful idea because many of us find that by the end of the day, you are so tired and busy that it's sometimes hard to collaborate with co-workers.  This would be a wonderful way to do so.  If you have an idea in the grocery store checkout line, you can just tweet it to your colleague.  Finally, Twitter captures conversation and centers it to the classroom and the learning at hand.  This is especially true in the lives of middle and high school students.  Instead of forbidding this new technology, embracing it would get these students more involved within the classroom.  As my father always said to my mother in my teen years, "Be careful, the more you try to forbid it, the more they will do it just because it's forbidden." 
     Some of these applications may not be applicable to preschool.  However, this is a tool that would help build better communication with your parents.  Many of my parents no longer have home land-line phones.  They live through their smart phones.  They might read a tweet before a letter in a folder.