Well, not exactly...I have been on twitter for a few years. It's just that a colleague of mine 'inadvertently' planed a lesson for me...with the tool to drive the lesson being Twitter.
The class began as per usual...and then it began. I posed a question on Twitter regarding earthquakes.
I was realistic, I expected a response or two by the end of the class...and it was the end of the day. I fully thought that I would be reverting back to my plans that were already laid out.
Well, as I was preparing the class for the original lesson, we got a reply.
Quickly I asked my class how we should respond, with a voice in the back of the room saying to "Thank them" for the reply..and then we posed a second question. LOVED IT... a reply to a question that we asked.
And then another reply came...and then another...and then another.
Until finally, we had responses from California, good old E-Town (Edmonton) and Eastern Canada, with a wide range of people sharing their experiences.
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| Seismic Activity in Canada - not much happening in the middle |
The conversations that we were engaged in were amazing...people who had been in earthquakes were sharing their memories, websites, photos and conversations that they had when the earthquake struck.
We had quakes that were small - consisting of localized ground shaking, and some were larger, with considerable damage. We discussed what the local governments had in place as a result of seismic activity, parks that you could visit and observe fault lines and websites of quakes giving details that we could never imagined, being an area where earthquakes simply never happen. We also asked those who were visiting an area when an earthquake struck if they would return.
At the end of class, you could see the class crackling with excitement...great discussions, an anticipation for the next time we used an avenue (such as Twitter) to connect with people around the world and experience authentic learning.
We learned so much about earthquakes that day...we vowed to emulate what happened in that class and hopefully recreate some of the magic (ahem..I mean learning) that came forth. The learning was relevant, current, and real.....it is almost as if we journeyed to where authentic inquiry made learning so enjoyable.
Earthquakes in the classroom...wow, that was fun!
