Microblogging in the classroom

I found a great article on www.edweek.org entitled "Educators Test the Limits of Twitter Microblogging Tool", which explains the short history of Twitter and gives examples of how this application can be used successfully in the classroom by both teachers and students.
The article states that Twitter is a "powerful professional development tool" for educators. It is a great way to network with others and to be constantly learning about new technologies that are becoming available. The way that our students work and learn is continually evloving. Instead of just being able to memorize and retrive information, students now need to learn how to navigate information. Using Twitter allows students as well as teachers to develop this important skill in today's workforce and way of life.
However, Twitter has many downfalls when used in the classroom, because of the lack of control that a teacher has on this application. The question of whether this site is "safe" for our students to use comes in question. For this reason, Paul R. Allison, a teacher in East Bronx, has created a site called "Youth Twitter", which allows teachers to edit students' tweets by granting them "adminitrator" status. Using "Youth Twitter" gives teachers more control on what their students are posting and who they are posting to, making this site safer than Twitter.
Teachers who have experience with both Twitter and Youth Twitter in their classrooms have asked students to post links to online projects, respond to questions and to interact with other students. One teacher even used Twitter as a platform for a collaborative story written by students.
After reading this article, it is clear that there are many benefits to using Twitter in the classroom, as long as there is some teacher control. It seems that Twitter is a useful tool for educators to collaborate with one another, but when students are involved in posting, it would be a better idea to use the Youth Twitter application simply because of the increased control. Our number one priority as educators should be to keep our students safe, especially when using online tools such as Twitter.
As a teacher of LOTE, I would use these applications in my classroom to have students post their opinions on current events in the world. I would also have my students create posts on information they may have found on certain cultural aspects of the language we are studying. For example, Day of the Dead, a traditional Mexican celebration, is approaching at the end of October, begining of November. I could ask my students to do some research online on the Day of the Dead, then have them post the information they found to their classroom Twitter account. This way every student is participating, and they are developing their navigating skills on the web.