CNN.com recently featured Dan Simon’s report on how one eighth grade history teacher is using Twitter in the classroom on the news site’s home page. Enrique Legaspi reminds his students to BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology), but his classroom also includes computers for any students without a device that connects to the internet. During class, he asks students to tweet their responses to his questions. Legaspi finds that using Twitter in this manner helps students find their voice and increases participation.
So What?
Middle and high school students are familiar with speaking electronically, especially through text messaging. Youth ministry offers many settings that may benefit from Twitter, including youth group, Sunday school classes, small groups, and confirmation.
- Have you ever used Twitter in your ministry with youth or young adults? If so, what did you learn from the experience? If not, what type of setting would be ideal for a one session experiment?
- What other technology have you integrated into youth ministry to improve student engagement? Has it been successful?