Despite Twitter’s brevity and the popularity of doubting it as a serious medium, Twitter allows for complex communication and pedagogical application that makes use of rhetorical identification and persuasion. This power is a compelling reason for teachers to consider social media as a veritable force in the classroom. We should learn from the model of the traditional newspapers: part of the reason they are losing business now is their reticence to move online and learn the new system the Internet makes possible. If we as teachers don’t at least consider new media, we’ll wake up one day to find that we have lost our monopoly on teaching writing. Someone else will have moved in and made us obsolete.
While I believe in letting students take charge of their own education, students won’t invest themselves in Twitter unless they see its usefulness and power. And they will never see its usefulness or power unless we guide them. This is our call as teachers: help our students learn to read and write as they take their scholarship to the next level of digital engagement.
The accompanying “Prezi” presentation can be found here.
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