Second grade teacher Patty Roman logs onto social media sites every day.And one of the most popular networks in her Cuyahoga Falls classroomis Twitter."We use Twitter every single day," she explained recently on WCPN's daily call-in show The Sound of Ideas. "Pretty much we tweet about what we're learning. "I'll take a picture of students, we'll tweet the work that's being done in the classroom."[audio href="http://audio2.ideastream.org/wcpn/2013/siosm.mp3" title="Listen to the Radio Story "][/audio]Roman said that many of her students have never been out of Ohio.So, knowing that, she didn't hesitate when a teacher from Ireland reached out via Twitter with an offer to connect the two classrooms.The highlight for her students was an interactive Skype call with their Irish counterparts, she said. ."For them to hear them speak in their accent that they have and the different terminology that they use," she said of the experience. "Its just the most amazing experience for these kids."Evergreen Education Group's Stacy Hawthorne has seen school districts from California to New Jersey use social media as a way to connect and learn from one another."Social media's not just for sharing what you're doing," the educational strategist said. "It’s for opening that dialogue to get feedback on what your ideas are or how to improve those, and that's when you really find the value in it."
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