Education Law

Tweeting civics education

BoardBuzz was encouraged to learn today of one new educational use for Twitter. Mashable reports that federal judge and current First Lady of Pennsylvania, Marjorie O. Rendell, created the @CivicsFirst account on Twitter expressly for the purpose of creating a community around civics education. Reuters tells us?in her own words?why:

?Social networking sites like Twitter bring people together from all over the world to discuss problems, formulate solutions, and generate powerful action. We are reaching out to teachers to create an online community around the topic of civics education, inspire students to connect with their elected officials, and persuade superintendents to incorporate model programs into their curriculum.?

Judge Rendell has a vision of using Twitter as a mechanism to share free online resources for teachers and start a dialogue about how educators can improve civics education and related curricula. BoardBuzz thinks it a lofty goal but a worthy one.

But as Mashable asks, “what do you think: does Twitter have an inevitable place in pedagogy? Is civic discourse possible in 140 characters or less?” We too would like to know.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).