Texting, Tweeting Are Great Teaching Tools

From Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning.......

Carol Tilley, Professor at University of Illinois , says that educators should embrace texting—as well as tweeting—to engage students.
Noting that more than 70 percent of teenagers have a mobile phone, Tilley says the technologies offer a “viable alternate means of engaging with that age group.” She offers numerous examples of classroom applications, including a look at how English teachers can use Twitter, which can be broadcast to a wider audience than texts:

“In terms of strategies for creative or critical writing, having a limited number of characters to work with opens up all sorts of cool ways to play with the medium.  For example, an English teacher could take a famous character from a novel and ask students to tweet from that character’s perspective.
It’s a good way to get into the psychology of the character.
Teachers could also challenge students to craft micro-stories complete with a climax and a denouement in 140 characters.

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