Using Twitter in Education

I use Twitter all the time, but usually only to live tweet during Monday Night RAW and WWE PPV Events! I follow a lot of education twitter accounts, but I don't really post about my teaching life or education on it. I do have @hergetdrama which I use to tweet information about upcoming shows, and I would love to have a twitter for my classroom! I think Twitter is pretty fantastic, because unlike social network such as Facebook where you really just talk to friends, you can use it to connect with people you haven't met before. I have gained followers in Ireland because of my wrestling tweets, and we talk about how Cena needs to turn heel, and how sad it is that Edge retired. I've met Dave Lagana, who used to be a writer for WWE in person at a Ring of Honor show because he invited us! But the point is, I never would have met these people if it weren't for Twitter.



A few years ago, I saw one of the coolest things ever on Twitter. The Royal Shakespeare Company had a cast "tweet" Romeo and Juliet over a period of six weeks or so. I had never used twitter at that point, and thus had absolutely no idea what was going on, but it was really cool nonetheless! Here is the link if you want to check it out: https://twitter.com/#!/such_tweet . I will definitely use this next year to show how Shakespeare can be relevant today! It would also be really cool to have students "tweet" a short story as a class and add on to it to see where it goes as an improvisation and collaborative exercise!

Twitter would also be a great way for students to study current events. They can see live what is trending in the world. I remember when Egypt had shut down everything and seeing it come up as trending almost immediately worldwide on twitter!