Students are always connected. They spend more time in class checking status updates and looking at pictures than they do listening to the teacher. How should this change the way we teach? Effective teaching promotes meaningful interaction, active learning, prompt feedback, and a variety of delivery methods. The popularity and functionality of Twitter and Facebook can be harnessed to accomplish these goals. When social networking is strategically incorporated into your online or blended class, interaction becomes central to the learning experience resulting in a social learning community.

Our presentation will cover the following topics:

(1) Brief introduction to social networking, with a little myth busting built in.  (2)  Interactive demonstration on how these tools can be used in conjunction with in-class activities and outside the classroom for ubiquitous learning.  (3) Integrating social tools with other websites for creating one-click posts, automatic tweet digests, virtual newspapers, parent interaction.

Please visit our wiki for pre-conference and introductory materials:  https://sites.google.com/site/teachersbestweapon/