Twitter: I want to know why.

THE email I've been waiting for all year arrived, today:

Dear Ms. Ignacio,
[My child*] asked for permission to open a twitter account. I need some justification as to why she needs to use twitter... I do not allow the use of social media [in my home]. I do not have facebook or twitter. The family uses a communal computer.
Also, at the general meeting at [the school] there was mention of all these social media and the dangers associated with them. I'm glad that my children are not using it, but when [*] mentioned using it in your class, I wanted to know why.

What a great question, right?!

At first, I was a bit defensive - actually, a lot defensive. I started stressing because I knew I now had a responsibility to respond. I thought back to my own initial resistance to both Facebook and Twitter. I thought about the news stories and other narratives around identity theft and bullying. I thought about the current separation I still have between my three twitter handles. Then, I realized that she was not entirely misguided in her decision to disallow the use of social media in her home. I decided that I wouldn't try to convince her of anything, but instead I'd tell her why I use Twitter.

"...I use it to engage students in discussion, to assess learning, and to teach digital responsibility and citizenship...students have to learn to be concise - since they may only use 140 characters, students have to present themselves publicly and engage each other in meaningful discussion,... I get to hear from everyone..."

I sent links to articles. I told her that her child would not be "penalized" for not tweeting - the student had already mentionned that she was not allowed to use Twitter and we had already found other ways for her to participate (exit slips, posts to my blog). Maybe the parent will read the articles, maybe she won't; maybe she'll try it for herself before allowing her child to get a twitter handle, maybe she won't. The one thing I know for sure is that she has to realize the great potential social media has to affect learning, in her own time.

For me, Twitter has definitely made me more aware of my awesome responsibilities as an educator.