"So What?" - The Power of Twitter, Voxer, and Great Questions
My good friend Tammy Neil , a math and tech integration teacher from Florida, challenged a few of us in the Breakfast Club , a daily educator chat on Twitter (see #BFC530 ) and active group on Voxer , recently with a great question: "So what?" The context of the discussion surrounded the power of social media and how our students use it. Alex from Target has gained nearly a million Twitter followers merely because a teenage girl shopping one day snapped a picture of a cute guy working the Target register and posted it. Tammy asked us, "So what?" What will this young man do with his now widely heard voice? Will he use it for personal gain, or will he use it to do something important? To make a difference? This prompted me to think about my own history classes and what it is like to be a student in one of those classes. Why should they learn about history? So what? How will students' time spent in my class make a difference? I have been ...