Our grade 3 and 4 students are using Twitter to help investigate how human impact on Alberta’s natural regions changes the land and communities. As part of their exploration, students were asked to form an opinion, based on facts, about the impact oil sands have on our province. Using their fact-based opinions as a foundation students will be writing a persuasive letter to an expert in the oil industry, government or regulating bodies that monitor the oil sands.
Using Twitter, students are able to make direct contact with individuals and to follow up with new questions when they receive responses. By using social media their learning is alive, relevant and rooted in current events.
Using Twitter, students are able to make direct contact with individuals and to follow up with new questions when they receive responses. By using social media their learning is alive, relevant and rooted in current events.
The question of who to follow arose quickly when we started looking at Twitter. Through classroom discussion and exploration students identified how to tell if an account was verified, how to navigate a profile page to find the user’s biography and website and how to navigate tweets the user sent. Students then derived a set of five questions they applied to each user they wanted to follow.
Once vetted by these questions students voted to follow the user or not and then began tweeting their questions using #oilsandsquestions to help organize the responses they received.
- What is this person’s/group’s job?
- Does this person/group have an interest in the oil sands?
- Is this person/group an expert in their field?
- Does this person/group tweet about the oil sands?
- Does this person/group use verifiable facts?
Once vetted by these questions students voted to follow the user or not and then began tweeting their questions using #oilsandsquestions to help organize the responses they received.
By using social media such as Twitter, our grade 3 and 4 students are learning how to navigate the digital world in a safe and controlled environment and how to use social media as a tool to interact with, engage in and experience their world as global citizens.
Dan Pye (@dcpye) is a Learning Leader at the All Boys Program. He’s passionate about empowering his students to create and collaborate through the use of technology, maker space and design thinking.
Dan Pye (@dcpye) is a Learning Leader at the All Boys Program. He’s passionate about empowering his students to create and collaborate through the use of technology, maker space and design thinking.
RSS Feed
