To Tweet or Not to Tweet

I have never been much of a tweeter. When everyone was talking about it, I decided to try it out. Even after trying it a bit I could not get into it.

I really disagree with the idea that people want to check in and hear about everyone’s mundane activities. Why would anyone want to know whether or not I am filling up with gas or is taking out the garbage? If you go with the theory that it is to keep in touch with people far away then they can’t meet you at the mall or go for a walk.

I will consent that it does have some uses. My school will tweet when a bus will be late or it lets parents know what is happening with their children while they are inIsrael. Overall I think that many, if not most, people tweet the STUPIDEST things. Also my page gets filled up constant retweets of stupid things.

This being said, what are the uses for twitter in a school setting? I work in an elementary school and there is not much use for it. These students are not allowed to have cell phones or PDAs in school.

Perhaps they could access it from the web, but I do not see the purpose.

One idea that could be done is have each child read a paragraph or two and tweet a summary. The 140 character restriction does lend itself to great summary skills.

While learning about Jewish history, students can create a twitter account as if they were a figure from history and tweet about the events that are happening “as they occur”.

As with anything, you can probably find a way to integrate it into Jewish education. I am not sure it would be the best use of time or the best idea. I guess I still need convincing. I am keeping an open mind.  I would tweet this, but it is too long.