News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Schools

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
May 24, 2012

Education students boost internship success with Twitter

Mallory Metheny Indiana State University

TERRE HAUTE — Education professors at Indiana State University are emboldening students to use the social media site Twitter to their advantage by exchanging teaching tips and “following” the nation’s leaders in education.

“I’m starting to learn that there’s more opportunities [with Twitter],” said Wesley Thomson, a senior elementary and special education major from Terre Haute. “It can be used as a professional growth tool.”

Todd and Beth Whitaker, a husband and wife team of education professors in educational leadership and elementary and special education, first developed the idea of Indiana State’s TOTAL (Teachers of Tomorrow Advancing Learning) internship program using Twitter to create an online community of exchanging ideas and networking with education professionals.

Elementary and special education majors complete the TOTAL internship a semester before student teaching to get them acquainted with the school setting.

The hashtag #isutotal allows students, professors and education leaders to post teaching ideas, articles and other resources in a central and accessible location.

“There are so few programs in the country doing this,” Todd Whitaker said. “It put us as one of the leading programs in the country in terms of thinking about how to integrate social media with our programs in education.”

Senior Brittany Parrett, an elementary and special education major from Michigan City, spent her internship in a second-grade classroom at DeVaney Elementary School. She plans to use Twitter to keep her connected to ISU while student teaching.

“It will just be a really good way for me to link back to ISU and to my professors and other students that will be going through the same thing as I will,” Parrett said. “That will be helpful to bounce off ideas, and also just to professionally grow because you have all these top people in education and their ideas are right there for me.”

Parrett has experienced firsthand the helpfulness of Twitter, as earlier in the semester, she wanted to develop an innovative way to teach her second-graders about inventions. Parrett put out a request for advice on the ISU TOTAL Twitter page.

“Within a couple hours, I had six different ideas on different things that I could do, so I was able to beef up my lesson and make it better through Twitter,” she said.

Fellow senior Sara Pfister, an elementary education major from Brazil, had a similar experience while searching for ideas on how to teach a unit on the Titanic. She tweeted her questions to Todd Whitaker, who Pfister called the “king of Twitter.”

“He re-tweeted it to his followers, who are education superstars, and within an hour I just had so many responses, links and ideas,” Pfister said. “I was able to just run with that, and it was great.”

Pfister described the social media tool as a “complete web of giving and taking” and Thomson agreed whole-heartedly.

“It’s like a chain. It just connects you so much from person to person,” Thomson said.

The seniors, who will complete their student teaching in the fall, realize the importance of connecting a traditional classroom education with an international piece of technology.

“I feel like we are in such a transitional state with education as a whole,” Pfister said. “If we’re going to be good teachers and do as well for our kids as teachers as we can, we need to be checking everything; we need to learn about everything.”

“I think it’s really important to keep you ahead of the game,” Parrett said. “When I go out to interviews, I want to be that innovative teacher that is receptive to change.”

Whitaker thinks that as a professor, he too can benefit from Twitter’s instant network of information in a “selfish” way.

“It is easy, as a professor, to be out of the loop related to changes in education, what’s currently happening. If you’re not directly in the field, you could easily get behind,” he said. “On Twitter, I interact with thousands, literally thousands, of educators [all over the world] who are in the trenches every single day. So not only do I know what are the latest, current things taking place in North Dakota, I know the latest, current things taking place in Japan.”

Thomson thinks that if used appropriately, Twitter can help her develop a professional network.

“It’s what you do with the social media. It’s just a catalyst,” she said.

Pfister added, “I consider it as an online portfolio almost, a documentation of things I’ve done and how I’ve grown.”

Beth Whitaker taught her students about the opportunities waiting for them on the social media site.

“There is a whole world of professional development going on right in front of our eyes,” she said.

The ISU TOTAL page also features quotes and encouraging comments to motivate the future teachers, an aspect that Pfister appreciates.

“You see all the things that are going on, legal battles over teaching right now, and it can be very frustrating wondering, ‘Am I going in already fighting a losing battle?’” Pfister said, “Then you can get on and see things that people have written, people who are already teachers, people who are going through it right now. It’s uplifting because it makes you think, ‘You know, I am going in fighting a battle, but I’m fighting the battle for a good reason.’”

Todd Whitaker is confident that connections made on Twitter benefit not just the ISU students, but also those who learn from Indiana State’s teaching methods.

“Other people around the world see our program and they’re going ‘Look at what they’re doing here.’ There’s nobody else doing this kind of stuff,” he said. “It lets us have access to the world, but it also lets the world have access to us.”

The seniors agree that Indiana State gives education students an advantage by encouraging them to explore social media and other teaching technologies.

“There’s a reason why our program is so innovative. There’s a reason it’s so well-known. There’s a reason our professors are pretty much drooled over by everyone else because they do think of things like this,” Pfister said. “I would never have known or thought to use Twitter as a way to make myself better at what I do. It says a lot for our professors to take time to learn to use it themselves and then take time to teach us about it.”

“I think that we kind of have an edge. Being an ISU TOTAL student, I have an edge on my competition when I go out and apply for those jobs because I’ve been exposed to so much more beyond the traditional methods of teaching,” Parrett said. “I feel like I’m really prepared to use all kinds of different strategies in my classes because of what I’ve learned.”

Thomson concluded, “Other people just don’t get what we get here.”

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Schools
Latest News
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
TribStar.com Poll
AP Video
Raw: Trucker Bumps I-5 Bridge Before Collapse Suspect in Killing of Officer Found Dead in Cell Raw: Texas Deputy Shot by Colo. Suspect Honored Major Detours Following Wash. Bridge Collapse American Held in Grisly Czech Murders Raw: Jersey Shore Reopens for Summer Officials: Tsarnaev Friend Linked to Slaying High Wire Spectacle Thrills Crowd in Austria Today in History May 25 UK-bound Pakistan Plane Diverted, 2 Men Arrested Today in History May 24 Obama:Sexual Assault Threatens Trust in Military Britain Braces for Possible Copycat Attacks Raw Video: Washington State Bridge Collapse ShowBiz Minute: Shelton, King, Lopez Two Suspects in Murder Known to London Police Raw: Memorial Day Flags Placed at Arlington Raw: Kevin Durant Tours Moore After $1M Pledge Raw: 80-Year-Old Climbs Mount Everest Raw: Tornado on the Ground in Oklahoma
NDN Video
Young protestor goes viral on Youtube High Wire Spectacle Thrills Crowd in Austria Toronto Mayor says he's not a crack head Maine island offers lighthouse getaway Suspect in Killing of Officer Found Dead in Cell Should We Prepare for Quakes? Lynn Kindergarten Class Rescues Ducklings Congressional gold medal awarded to civil rights heroes Charles Ramsey visits Kentucky Unique Display Greets Guests At Revel Casino Cape Cod Train Service Worries Residents BASE jumper rides snowmobile off cliff to honor dead friend Bridge Collapse Survivor: 'Rough Day' SHOCKING: School Guard Throws Girl Down Stairs Star Wars X-Wing Star Fighter Made of Legos Actress Amanda Bynes Arrested in New York Singer Psy Has An Imposter President Obama Heckled at National Security Speech Morgan Freeman falls asleep on air More lewd photos may soon come out: Weiner
Parade
Magazine
Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.
  • -

     

    March 12, 2010

activity
Real Estate News