Thursday, December 29, 2011

Mason Co 7th Graders Tweet

Mason County Middle School classroom 
uses social network in classroom

This from the Ledger Independent:
Ella Bowling's seventh grade science class has something to tweet about. It's their use of the popular social networking site, Twitter, in the classroom.

Bowling, who teaches at Mason County Middle School, said she had heard about colleges and even the Kentucky Department of Education using Twitter in order to share information. Most of Bowling's students have cell phones and use Twitter or other sites regularly.

"I know in the past we have been so afraid of using social media and have discouraged it," Bowling said in an email sent to MCMS coworkers. "But, it's like they always say, if you can't beat them, join them! Students are going to use social media so why not find a way to get them to use it for an educational purpose!"

Bowling's first use of Twitter came in the format of a review she had Dec. 14 for a unit test. Approximately 40 students from two "teams" logged on to take part. Bowling put out questions and tweeted pictures of graphs the students might see on the test.

"The kids had to answer the questions," she said. "They loved it. They thought it was the best thing ever for a review."

Students participated by using the hash tag #mcmsscience in their tweets, Bowling said.

Bowling said several students told her they would likely not have studied if it had not been for the Twitter review.

The average grade for the test was 87 percent, Bowling said.

"I was pretty pleased with that," she said...

Mcmsscience MCMS Science
Bring your iPods, iPads, and phones to class on Jan. 4! 
You can tweet live pics and videos of the
awesome demos I'll be doing! 
#mcmsscience
27 Dec 

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