Twitter @Heathcote - Embracing social media & addressing concerns

I've written a few posts over the last week about how we will be using Twitter here at Heathcote.

• A primer
• Our hashtag

I also wanted to put up a post addressing the two most obvious sides of the same coin, the benefits and concerns.

The only 2 things on the internet

I have long told my students "there are only 2 things on the internet."

Two.

Nothing more, nothing less.

I use this, especially with elementary school students, as a way to explain, simply, the tenets of safe web use.

The only two things on the internet are

Twitter @HeathcoteSchool - Our Hashtag!

In the previous post, Twitter @HeathcoteSchool, I wrote about Twitter as a platform and offered a solution for following Twitter users without actually have a Twitter account, or even a smartphone.

The previous post also listed all the teaches with Twitter accounts at Heathcote.

This post is more geared toward people with a Twitter account looking to get a more streamlined Heathcote experience out of the Twitter platform...

Twitter @HeathcoteSchool - a primer

Twitter is a great resource. It is no longer just Ashton Kutcher talking about what he ate for breakfast (although, I'm sure there is probably still a lot of that going on).

These days teachers are using Twitter as another method of communicating with parents. There is a Heathcote School Twitter account that posts school announcements, shares classroom work, and in general acts as another way to connect the school with the community. A lot of parents have signed up for Twitter (its free) just to follow their child's classroom feed or the Heathcote School feed. There are many teachers who speak highly of the home-school connecting Twitter fosters and the instructional engagement it supports.