Using Blogs and Twitter to Improve Teaching and Learning

In this Kappan article, William Ferriter (a North Carolina sixth-grade teacher) and Nicholas Provenzano (a Michigan high-school English teacher) sing the praises of the two-way conversation with fellow teachers around the world made possible by blogs and Twitter (Provenzano’s The Nerdy Teacher has almost 30,000 Twitter followers), and the “unconferences” they join. 

“As powerful as the changing nature of innovation has been,” they add, “practitioners who embrace new learning spaces need to be aware of the following pitfalls:

• Balance – Having a customized stream of information tuned to one’s own vision can result in professional blind spots. “Avoiding these self-created intellectual echo chambers depends on educators who intentionally seek out dissenting voices to learn with,” say Ferriter and Provenzano. “The primary goal of social spaces should be to challenge, instead of to simply confirm, what we already know and believe.” 

• Accuracy – No one is actively policing the content of the Internet, say the authors. We all need to be critical consumers of information from the Web.

• Recognition – Few educators view social spaces and unconferences as valid forms of professional development. “If connected educators want this to change, they must systematically document the effect that nontraditional learning opportunities are having on their practice,” say Ferriter and Provenzano. And district leaders should partner with innovative PD providers and create additional opportunities for teachers to explore new ideas.

“Today’s Lesson: Self-Directed Learning… for Teachers” by William Ferriter and Nicholas Provenzano in Phi Delta Kappan, November 2013 (Vol. 95, #3, p. 16-21), www.kappanmagazine.com; the authors can be reached at @plugusin and @thenerdyteacher. 

From the Marshall Memo #509