Twitter or Instagram?
What do these sites provide for teaching and learning?
Twitter can be used to research ideas, topics, or subjects and allow users to share that information with their own followers. Twitter posts, or "Tweets" must be 140 characters or less. While photos are allowed and displayed in Twitter, they are not the main focus. The captions and other tags are displayed with a hashtag (#) that allows anyone to search for related content with the same hashtag. Twitter can be used to gather information or disseminate information, ideas and opinions.
In the classroom, Twitter can be used as a way for students to concisely describe their idea (because they but choosey with their 140 characters!) or categorize their thinking because they use a hashtag.
Instagram is a way for users to post photos and caption them. Users can also comment on each others' posts and pictures. Instagram could be used be students to find or take pictures related to a topic, idea, or opinion and then captioned. Students could then comment on each others similar to the way in which this course comments on our posts in discussions via moodle.