Teaching with Microblogs

    

    In this week, I read two articles: A must have guide on using twitter in yourclassroom and 6 best twitter tips every teacher should know about. Both of these two articles are about the using of the microblogs in language teaching class.

    In the former article, from five different perspectives: communication, organization, resources, writing skills and twitter exercises, the author showed us a lot of practical tips in microblogs using. For myself, I have been a microblog user for almost 3 years and I saw it changed our world with its special function: instant communication. No matter where you are, if your cellphone have signal, you will have chances to share the scene you see, the idea you think, even the video or the song you like. It certainly could be used in the language class, just as we know, the language learning process is based on the foundation of communication. The twitter could shorten the distance between the student and teacher. Just as mentioned in this article, ambient office hours, silencing blurters and attendance reminders and etc. these methods are all for the convenience of communication between teacher and students. And it also could be used as the bridge between student and students, teacher and students’ parents. It is a trend that everyone will be involved in social network in the future, we must accept it and use it as our tools.

    In another article, 6 best twitter tips every teacher should know about, the author showed us some advices of using twitter by a visual way. Based on the data collect from the twitter users, the author made a brief summary of the users’ using habit. Just as I mentioned above, in the future, the using of microblogs will become a common behavior in our life. The understanding of the using habit will also help the language teachers to use it effectively. I remembered that in China, the analysis of using microblogs become one of the most important issue for some famous enterprises and companies now. The deeper analysis of microblogs will help them know more about their customers’ preference. 

    All in all, as a language teacher, I will concentrate on the trend of the development of micoblogs and try to use it effectively in my class.