Tech tools: Twitter in the classroom

Me: "I'll send you an email."
Student: "uh...I don't check my email."
Me: "Ever?"
Student: "Ever. I just delete everything."

Email is sooooooo 2006. At least you would think so if you asked many of my students. Teachers use email and it represents the pinnacle of high tech for many of us. However, an increasing number of students (it was 2 in a group of about 15 in a recent poll of mine) don't really use it. Certainly not for their personal peer-to-peer communication.

Sometimes teaching is about getting others to change. Sometimes it is about changing yourself and the way you do things. I decided to try something different. I am trying to get the students in the club I advise to set up Twitter accounts. This way I can get messages to all of them at once and the messages can "push through" the digital haze into their phones. I will still do email. As a matter of fact the Twitter updates will be sent as emails to the students as well.

If you feel so inclined, answer this question in the comments:

How could you have students use cell phones for your class to learn better, more authentically or more collaboratively?

I actually put my Twitter feed up on this blog (look right.)

It's all just a big experiment....