Tweeting for Teachers

For me, the most immediately apparent use for microblogging as an educator is professional development. Keeping up with trends in technology and seeing other educators respond to political and social phenomena in real-time is increasingly necessary as teachers struggle to prove their relevance in a world where their work is perpetually undervalued. No one can be everywhere at once, and with the alarming speed at which the world around us -- and the technology we use to navigate it -- is changing, it's helpful to have a small army of twitter users who can help you keep up! 

Much like social networking sites devoted to education, such as Classroom 2.0, Twitter allows teachers to connect with other educators around particular topics and to share information and ideas with one another. Due to the limited nature of microblogging, it's good to have other forums for more elaborate discussions and exchanges of information, but to share thoughts and links quickly with a wide audience, Twitter can certainly be useful. 

At this point, I don't think I would be likely to use Twitter with students, but it's possible that in time, that could change.