Facebook and Twitter as Social Media Tools

Social media tools can be very helpful to students. Although Wikipedia is not to be taken as a full encyclopedia, its format can be used to help students share their ideas (1). In the first article, a second grade class used a wiki to share information they collected about U.S. national parks. This enables these second graders to learn to share information, correct each other's pages, and for the teacher to make corrections as well. Another way to share information more quickly is through a type of website like Twitter.
Twitter enables users to send updates in real time to whoever is following them or to whoever goes online to that page. Although Twitter and "tweets" are largely used to share updated information about what a person is doing, it can also be used for to let students know about a new article they can read and it encourages them to keep in touch with updated information. What is also nice about a website like Twitter is that a student can be anywhere, on a train, at home, in a library, or eating out, and receive updates about homework, new information for an upcoming project, or even the cancellation of an assignment.
With the sharing of information comes a new light in educating the youth of today. The more information they share, the more they learn and grow, they become more productive members of society. Using websites like wiki and twitter, students and even librarians can share and build on that shared information. One idea can spark another.

1. EBSCO HOST. Summers, Laura L. The Value of Social Software in School Library: Instruction, Communication, and Collaboration. March/April 2009.