On Thursday, April 22nd, I participated in the tweet chat with Kay Oddone and Alastair Creelman about collaborative and networked learning. It was my second conversation on Twitter, first one being the conversation held in March with David White. This time there were less people participating which unfortunately had a great impact on the dynamic of the discussion. I definitively agree with Alastair Creelman who says in his YouTube tutorial “The more people contribute the better the discussion.”

I always wondered why I never really used Twitter before. One reason might be that Twitter in my home country, Germany, is not very popular. Recent surveys show that only 5.8 million Germans are using Twitter which corresponds to 7 percent of the population. According to a survey from 2000, Twitter is only the sixth most popular social media app in Germany – after WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

I think the potential of Twitter is underestimated in Germany. I believe that it can be a great tool, especially in the educational area. I briefly searched on the Internet and got inspired by a text collection from 2009 called Twitterature. The World’s Greatest Books Retold Through Twitter. Since I am a German teacher, I could imagine using Twitter with my students to make a summary of a film or for short creative writing tasks. The 280 word-limit makes it an interesting and difficult challenge. I could also imagine using Twitter as a conversation and discussion tool which might help shyer students express their opinion in ways which make them feel more comfortable. For this purpose, I would strongly consider creating a professional Twitter account. As for my personal account, I would use it for creating a Personal Learning Network. I began using it on Tuesday when @worldofnina mentioned in the tweet chat that she uses comics in her classes. I love also comics, and once used them in my classes too, so I immediately decided to follow her, hoping for a fruitful exchange among colleagues in the future