3.7 Communication & Collaboration
Candidates utilize digital communication and collaboration tools to communicate locally and globally with students, parents, peers, and the larger community.
Twitter Initiative
The Twitter Initiative was completed in the spring of 2012 while I was completing my Master's Degree in Instructional Technology. It was not required for a specific course in the program. The purpose of the Twitter Initiative was to test pilot the use of Twitter as a means to communicate with the families of the 4th Grade students at Austell Intermediate. I thought it would be beneficial for the spring semester because that is typically a very busy time of year for our students and families. My plan was to test pilot Twitter for the remaining month of the school year, and if it was successful, I would implement the program from the beginning of the following school year. I was really motivated to use Twitter because of the mobile features that are offered through Twitter. I thought it would be very beneficial for the parents to receive text messages with quick updates and reminders.
The Twitter Initiative demonstrates mastery of Standard 3.7 because I utilized a digital communication tool to communicate with parents, students, and the community. Twitter provided a means to give families quick updates and reminders about fourth grade. Mastery of this standard required that I maintained professional and consistent while using Twitter to communicate.
From completing the Twitter Initiative, I learned about the effectiveness of a quick and simple communication. Many teachers rely on blogs for communication, which are great tools, but I found that Twitter encourage me to stay focused and to the point. Also, I learned a lot using Twitter. I found that parents do not even have to create a Twitter account to receive tweets. Instead, they can choose to follow someone strictly through their mobile via text messages. Completing the Twitter Initiative also allowed me to work with my team on technology use as a communicative tool. Before I began the Twitter Initiative, most of the teachers had not even used Twitter before. This artifact also allowed me to have discussions with my administration about Twitter which led to positive discussions about technology use for educators. To improve the quality of this artifact, I wish I would have started using Twitter at the beginning of the school year. I think that the Austell 4th Grade Twitter account would have had a much bigger following. I really look forward to implementing Twitter as a communication tool with my students' families at the beginning of the next school year.
The Twitter Initiative impacted school improvement because it provided an effective to communicate with parents and families about their children's educations. Any time parents and teachers can work together to improve the quality of the learning environment, the students will have a positive impact and this leads to overall school improvement. The impact of the Twitter Initiative could be assessed by surveying the parents and how they felt about the use of Twitter to communicate quick updates and reminders. The link to the survey could be tweeted so it could be easily accessed.
The Twitter Initiative demonstrates mastery of Standard 3.7 because I utilized a digital communication tool to communicate with parents, students, and the community. Twitter provided a means to give families quick updates and reminders about fourth grade. Mastery of this standard required that I maintained professional and consistent while using Twitter to communicate.
From completing the Twitter Initiative, I learned about the effectiveness of a quick and simple communication. Many teachers rely on blogs for communication, which are great tools, but I found that Twitter encourage me to stay focused and to the point. Also, I learned a lot using Twitter. I found that parents do not even have to create a Twitter account to receive tweets. Instead, they can choose to follow someone strictly through their mobile via text messages. Completing the Twitter Initiative also allowed me to work with my team on technology use as a communicative tool. Before I began the Twitter Initiative, most of the teachers had not even used Twitter before. This artifact also allowed me to have discussions with my administration about Twitter which led to positive discussions about technology use for educators. To improve the quality of this artifact, I wish I would have started using Twitter at the beginning of the school year. I think that the Austell 4th Grade Twitter account would have had a much bigger following. I really look forward to implementing Twitter as a communication tool with my students' families at the beginning of the next school year.
The Twitter Initiative impacted school improvement because it provided an effective to communicate with parents and families about their children's educations. Any time parents and teachers can work together to improve the quality of the learning environment, the students will have a positive impact and this leads to overall school improvement. The impact of the Twitter Initiative could be assessed by surveying the parents and how they felt about the use of Twitter to communicate quick updates and reminders. The link to the survey could be tweeted so it could be easily accessed.