Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/29842
above: Sixth-grade English teacher Jeff Russell tells his students about appropriate behavior online. right: Students actively participate when lessons meet them on their level, and they learn about the tools of their generation. into their curriculum. Bey-Ling Sha, a journalism and media studies professor at San Diego State University whose students specialize in public relations, requires some of her students to follow her on Twitter. It makes sense, she says, since em- ployers expect students to have social net- working skills. Over the course of three se- mesters she has accumulated more than 457 followers. She tweets or re-tweets to her students about job announcements — one student was hired at VH1 after a tweet — as well as links to PR tips and profes- sional articles. Sometimes she tweets about her personal life with reflections about her roles as a parent and active member of her children’s PTA. “The hardest thing about incorporating social networking in the classroom is the difference between personal and profession- al use,” says Sha, a California Faculty Asso- ciation member. “My students can follow me on Twitter only with permission, which keeps things professional. But I also want them to connect with me and see me as a person.” (Her Twitter handle is @DrSha.) Clearly her students are connected with her. On this particular day, she sends out a tweet from her office asking students to drop by, and within five minutes some have made their way across the large cam- pus to her door. While she waits, she glances at her computer to read some of their tweets. “Awww,” she says happily, noting that one of her students has participated in a Twitter Follow Friday tradition and rec- ommended her as someone others should follow. “Awesome,” she tweets back. “Thanks for #FF.” Pat Foughty, a graduate student who heeded her tweet, says following his pro- fessor on Twitter is time well spent. “I enjoy her insights, and she’s plugged into organizations that are helpful for my academic or professional use,” he says. “It’s helpful now, and will also be helpful in the future.” The new face of professional development Adina Sullivan, a fourth-grade teacher at San Marcos Elementary School, follows 500 people in the education community on Twitter. The practice helps her try out new ideas in her classroom, grow as an ed- ucator and gain instant support from col- leagues she has never met. “Teaching is not an easy thing to do,” observes Sullivan, a member of the San Marcos Education Association. “From Twitter, teachers find new ways to help each other. I was working on a hybrid learning project this week, a combination of online and face-to-face instruction, and I put out questions to my social network. Within minutes I had people sending me links to different resources. It was so much APRIL 2011 | www.cta.org 17