learning from Twitter

I have already posted previously about some of the potentials and issues I saw with Twitter. However, since then, I have become more engaged with the potentials of a PLN on Twitter because I have had Tweet Deck installed and open on my computer for a while now. I even find myself checking it to look for new updates and blog posts because I have found so many interesting ideas about teaching just from clicking on tweeted links. I honestly just selected some groups and individuals to follow based on their general topics seeming interesting to me, but I have already encountered a lot of useful stuff that I can't resist reading. Even the length of a Tweet contributes to its attractive power. It is just long enough that a well-formulated tweet will pique my interest, but just short enough that it will leave me wanting to follow the link to learn more. It is nice to have an online "temptation" that, unlike my Facebook or sports blog interests, is actually contributing to my professional development and I don't have to view as a waste of time.

For example, I just found this article about passing rates of AP tests. The section that most interested me discusses how minority students, especially African Americans, have significantly lower passing rates than other students, arguing that the reason for this discrepancy is a lack of preparation to take AP classes. This interested me because I hope that schools can become a place that battles against social inequality instead of perpetuating it and this seems to indicate otherwise. However, I also think it misses the possible interpretation that there is a disadvantage built into being formally graded on writing when the expected standard is white not African American vernacular. Sure it is important for all students to learn proper "standard English," but the extra difficulty for minority students who don't speak as close to that vernacular at home could partially explain why they don't seem as prepared when they enter an AP class. They would have had to do more work and learned more in school than a white student in order to only be at the same competency level of writing standard English.

While I'm on the topic, here is a creative commons picture originally completed unrelated to education that I think speaks ironically to the possibility of tests putting students within a box that harshly, coldly delineates their knowledge level and capabilities:

Original Image: "test"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sidelong/246816211/sizes/s/in/photostream/
by: DaveBleasdale

Released under an Attribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en