Twitter Evaluation Using Communication Tool Rubric

Twitter seems to be a pro at reaching the masses with an intuitive communication tool.  There is SO much information flowing via Twitter that I completely understand the requirement that users must be 13 years of age.  However, with thoughtful inclusion, elementary teachers can still take advantage of this tool.  For communities or classes new to Twitter, I think it will help to drum up some excitement in order to sway folks to agree about its value.  Classes could write Tweets together at the end of the day using a picture taken by the class photographer (who follows specific confidentiality rules such as refraining from showing student faces or last names).  Every day, a new student could be selected to be in the tweet.  Wow would that student be excited to run home and say they're in a Tweet!  At class and school events, signs with an appropriate hashtag could be posted around the school.  Even if folks don't want to write tweets, they could check for updates using that hashtag.  Twitter seems like a juicy tool to me because I tend to be too wordy, or to labor over what I'm going to say. With a limit of 140 characters, I'm forced to be brief and I'm less intimidated by the task of writing a "post" since it isn't going to take me an hour.  I can't wait to get our schools on Twitter in the fall!

*Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Twitter using the rubric is my own thinking.