Kildare and Wicklow ETB Newsletter Issue 8 | Page 28

'If you always do what

you always did, you will always get what you

always got.

- Albert Einstein

Innovative Ideas for the Classroom

TweetDeck is a social media dashboard application for management of Twitter accounts. It includes a host of features to help advanced users get the most out of Twitter: manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule Tweets for posting in the future, filter retweets, set alerts, build Tweet collections and more.

What is Twitter anyway?

Twitter is an information network made up of 140-character messages called Tweets. It's an easy way to discover the latest news related to subjects you care about.

How is it useful?

Twitter contains information you will find valuable. Messages from users you choose to follow will show up on your home page for you to read. It’s like being delivered a newspaper whose headlines you’ll always find interesting – you can discover news as it’s happening, learn more about topics that are important to you, and get the inside scoop in real time.

Check out 50 WAYS TO USE TWITTER IN THE CLASSROOM

Pinterest has quickly become one of the biggest ways for teachers to share resources and information short of Twitter. It lets you build ‘boards’ and easily ‘pin’ parts of the web (text, images, videos, websites, etc.) onto those boards.

Curate Content - create resource boards for topics, pin current events to boards for students to read every day

Connect and collaborate with other students - promote student work online, be inspired by other schools and use the search bar to find on-topic content and teaching ideas.

Drop Everything and Go Check Out Blendspace!

Blendspace is a free web tool for teachers to collect resources in one place to form a bundled, interactive lesson for students or colleagues. Blendspace also gives you the ability to add in multiple choice quizzes into your lessons so that your lessons are more than just sharing info - it helps you assess students on what they're learning right alongside the content.