To Tweet or Not To Tweet

In The New York Times

I borrowed this title from a not-so-great New York Times article in which Maureen Dowd interviewed Biz Stone and Evan Williams, creators of Twitter.  The entire article consists of Dowd berating Twitter and Stone and Williams doing little to try to make her change her mind, which given her remark that the pair has "destroy[ed] civilization as we know it" was probably the smart thing to do.  Dowd comes off as a close-minded jerk, and the Twitter creators show they understand that their site is not for everyone but has a real place in social media, citing the role Twitter has played in the revolutions in the Middle East.  The best line in the article comes when Dowd asks if Shakespeare would have used Twitter, and Stone replies, "Brevity’s the soul of wit, right?"

In Film

Page One: Inside the New York Times is a new documentary that follows a few NYT reporters over the course of a year at the beginning of the rise of social media as a source for news and the subsequent decrease in circulation of print media.  One of the reporters who caught my eye was Brian Stelter, a young up-and-comer dedicated to new media including Twitter.  The star of the documentary, David Carr, says of Stelter, “I still can’t get over the feeling that Brian Stelter was a robot assembled in the basement of The New York Times to come and destroy me.”  And that's the way many print journalists feel about new media.  Below is a clip from PBS news show Need to Know (which I love) discussing the film with Stelter and Carr.  Stelter's brief discussion of Twitter leaves the audience with no questions as to his feelings about the social networking site.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

In the Classroom



The debate is raging among educators about the place social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc., should have in the classroom, if any.  I plan on researching and writing a future post about different ways to use Twitter in the classroom, but as for now I will not take a firm stand.  Not having used Twitter myself, I am not yet able to give an educated response on the subject.  However, I am intrigued by the use of Twitter in schools, and this video provides an interesting example of a digital classroom.

Prezi

Prezi is and web-based service that allows users to create online presentations that do so much more than PowerPoint.  You work with one screen so that your audience can see the big picture, and then you zoom in for details.  Check out the one I made about Rodman Philbrick, who by the way is a fabulous young adult author, for one of my graduate school classes. 

Rodman Philbrick on Prezi

Prezi is free for anyone with a (dot)edu email address.  It is relatively easy to use and quick to learn and would be a great way to engage students during lessons or to give them an outlet for presenting their own information.  My attempt resulted in a relatively simple presentation, but if you take the time, Prezi offers many cool effects that can make your work shine. 

Take some time to explore the Prezi database to see some really great examples.  The following example isn't super relevant to the blog or anything, but it's a great example of what you can do with Prezi.

Future-Proof Your Education on Prezi

Writing with Rap

While in grad school, I had the great opportunity to work one-on-one with a fifth-grader over several weeks.  I was tasked with having him respond to a piece of literature in a way that was meaningful to him.  He chose to read Drive-By by Lynne Ewing, a novel about a boy whose older brother is killed in a drive-by shooting and has to learn to survive without him.

When we started to talk about what kind of product he wanted to create about the book, his school insecurities came out.  He didn't think he was a good artist and didn't want to take any risks on a creative project.  He also decided that he really wanted to write about football.  After a discussion about why he loved football and what he thought might have happened if the main character had played football, he decided to try to write a letter to the character to convince him to join a football team.  We tried brainstorming to get ideas for the letter, and I quickly realized that his go-to method, cluster diagrams, was not working for him because he thought in sentences, not topics.

I remembered that he had said he loved Drake and other rappers, and he said he thought he could rap, too.  I played some music and had him start talking/rapping to the main character while I typed what he said.  We rearranged the sentences, filled in what was needed, and he turned the words into a rap song.  I let him record the song, and I burned him a copy on cd for him to keep.  He seemed to be really proud that he had created something smart and cool that he could share with his friends and family, and I learned a valuable lesson about finding alternate routes to meet the same learning goals.

Below is a video I made explaining the creative process and showcasing his rap.