Twitter in K-12 EducationBy CAP 351 Students & Janet Ochs

Team 1 - James Hill Elementary Location: Langley City, British Columbia (Canada)

Twitter is being used by the Principal to keep in contact with parents and provide useful

information and inspirations. Parents who cannot physically be involved in their children’s education

have the opportunity to stay connected through social media such as a school web page, school

blog, Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube channel. Social media helps build greater

reputations for schools by showing positive day-to-day activities and actions that take place.

Instead of communicating to parents by discussing events and issues at the school, social media

allows schools to communicate with parents. Social media encourages feedback from parents and

provides positive news that is happening within their school opposed to mainstream media’s

stories. (Wejr, 2014)

“Sharing photos, videos and posts of the small stories that happen in a school can help parents and

families to see and feel the culture of learning and care of the school” (Wejr, 2014).

“By using technology to meet parents where they are and participate in dialogue around their child’s

education, we can build community and effective relationships both online and in person” (Wejr,

2014).

Team 2 - Springfield Elementary

Who: Chelsie Weaver’s fourth grade class

What: Springfield Elementary School

Where: Trenton (Camden County), New Jersey

-A bulletin board that reads “Tweet What’s Neat” where students write in 140 characters or less

something cool that happened or something they learned. Then at the end of the day Chelsie tweets

out to the parent followers the notes her students post. Chelsie talks about how parents want to be

involved in the classroom, "(Parents) want to feel involved in their school life just as much as their

home life," Weaver said. "I want to bridge that gap and bring them to the classroom -- even if it's

virtually." (US Official News, 2015)

The author then talks about how the school encourages its teachers to use twitter to collaborate with

other teachers, helping others with sharing of resources and advice. (US Official News, 2015)

Team 3 - Salt Lake City District

Salt Lake City District is located in Salt Lake City, Utah

How twitter is being used:

-Notifying members of the community of short bits of news and communication. The people they

are reaching out to include students, parents, faculty and staff. They specifically do not want this to

replace the schools newspaper as they understand not everyone has easy access to all of this

technology. (Butler, 2010)

-The twitter account is also used to inform the followers about dangerous situations. For example,

there was an alert of a bomb threat at a high school and stated that all students were evacuated

safely. Fifteen minutes later another alert was sent letting everyone know that no bomb had been

found and no one had been hurt. (Butler, 2010)

-Wilson, the North Regions Superintendent, used twitter for some different ways. She claims she

used twitter on one account to target the principals of her district. Its sole purpose is to share

information such as meetings, training sessions etc. She even uses another twitter account to

provide inspiration to her teachers. (Butler, 2010)

Team 4 - Abraham Lincoln Elementary

Location: Honest Abe Lincoln Elementary School in Glen Ellyn,

Illinois

Ms. Conrad’s 1st grade class uses twitter:

● Weekly Newsletter

● Update parents on daily activities

● Send out reminders to parents

● Combining technology and education creates an exciting new

environment for kids to learn

● Helps with reading, typing, and spelling skills

● Children want to use technology and turning it into an

educational tool is win-win.

● Shows kids that technology isn’t always for entertainment. (Michelle Manchir, 2012)

Team 5 - District 308

→ Located in Oswego, Illinois the suburbs of Chicago. This district has 22 schools with over 18,000

students.

Twitter:

The district uses twitter to provide updates for events, school closings, emergency alerts, or important

policy changes. Teachers are also using Twitter to remind students and parents of assignment due

dates, test schedules, and so forth.

Facebook:

Teachers post homework assignments, links, and other information of interest, all of which parents can

access to stay involved in their children’s educational experience.

Youtube:

District 308 uses YouTube to post videos of student activities, district-wide initiatives, and awards.

Pinterest:

Districts post announcements, invitations, photographs, and student artwork. Teachers post lesson

plans, assignments, and schedules and highlight student projects. Pinterest allows everyone to

contribute and share their work with the world.

Graves, B. B., & O'Malley, P. A. (2014)

Team 6 - District 214 Location: Arlington Heights, Illinois

District 214 has created a friendly social media competition using twitter to

become more vocal within the community. There are six high schools and 3 alternative

programs involved in this competition. For every new follower or retweet of original

content, the school receives a point. By April 11th, the team with the most points will

receive 2,000 ice cream vouchers and a flavor named after them at Capannari Ice Cream

in Mount Prospect. (Silverberg, 2014)

The goal of this competition is to create a more open community to the parents,

students, teachers, and all of the residents in the district. This competition has increased

the districts twitter following by 170% since the month of July. The district is using twitter

as a way for people to access dates of sporting contests, concerts, fundraisers, photos of

students traveling over spring break, and all other school related events. (Silverberg, 2014)

Team 7 - University of Southern Mississippi

Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Employers currently value digital literacy and look to hire employees who are skilled in

social media.

“Many teachers and school districts have started using Twitter for motivating practices, to

help students learn and become more media savvy” (Morgan, 2013).

Twitter is used as a potential to increase student learning. There has been an

“improvement in reading, writing, digital literacy, information gathering, and

communication with students and parents” (Morgan, 2013).

Twitter encourages students to do better work, because they have to publish the work for

an authentic audience. (Morgan, 2013)

Twitter Fast Follow for Cell Phone

Twitter Account is NOT needed

As the phone number, use 40404 (U.S. Code)

In the text message area, place the following:

• follow account name such as follow cap351Ochs

• For more information, visit Twitter support at

https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170004-fast-following-on-sms#

Summary

-Team 1: Twitter is being used by the principal to provide useful information to parents. Sharing photos

and discussing school events.

-Team 2: Individual twitter accounts run by teachers, connects parents to the classroom. The school

also encourages teachers to use twitter to make a professional learning network.

-Team 3: School district wants to use twitter to contact parents immediately following emergencies and

other incidents.

-Team 4: Combining teaching and social media to make a fun environment to help teach children

reading and writing skills.

-Team 5: Teachers have classroom Facebook accounts which post homework assignments and other

information so parents can stay involved in the learning process.

-Team 6: District 214 has created a social media competition where a point system is involved where

at the end of the year the winning team receives 2,000 ice cream vouchers and an ice cream flavor

named in their honor.

-Team 7: Twitter encourages students to do better work, because they have to publish the work for an

authentic audience.

Reference ListBarone, D. M., & Mallette, M. H. (2013). ON USING TWITTER. Reading Teacher, 66(5), 377-379.

Butler, K. (2010). Tweeting Your Own Horn. District Administration, 46(2), 41-44.

Graves, B. B., & O'Malley, P. a. (2014). Using Social Media to Improve District Communications. School Business

Affairs, 80(7), 8-9.

Kerr, D. (2012) Twitter gets and A+ in kindergarten classroom Retrieved from http://www.cnet.com/news/twitter-

gets-an-a-in-kindergarten-classroom/

Manchir, M. (2012). Twitter Evolves as Tool For Little Ones to Tweet About School Activities. Education Week,

31(24), 9.

Matteson, A. (2010). Tweacher (n): The Twitter Enhanced Teacher. School Library Monthly, 27(1), 22-23.

Morgan, H. (2013) Focus on Technology: Enhancing Instruction and Communication with Twitter Retrieved from

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00094056.2014.872522?journalCode=uced20#.VPo6MeEzDb5

Reference List Continued

Rojas, C. (2015) New Jersey: Tweeting teachers: How one N.J. elementary school is embracing Twitter.

Retrieved from http://hanimorgan.com/publications/

Silverberg, M. (2014) Dist. 214 launches Twitter contest among schools Retrieved from

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140401/news/140409959/

US Official News (23 Feb. 2015) New Jersey: Tweeting teachers: How one N.J. elementary school is embracing

Twitter Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.

Wejr, C. (2014). A Virtual Window. Education Canada, 54(4), 12-15.