Todaysmeet: An Alternative to Twitterature

If you are not familiar with the expression Twitterature, let me explain it to you. Twitterature is a combination of Twitter and Litterature. It became popular in schools because a lot of students know how to work with Twitter. It is free and easy to access on any mobile device. Students can be evaluated on both reading comprehension and text production when using Twitter, because they must read the texts and create new ones. It is a simple tool used by teachers to evaluate their students.

What if their is a problem with Twitter? What if students can’t share texts with the rest of the class?

Here is my answer to these questions: todaysmeet.com

DESCRIPTION

TodaysMeet is a free website used to create discussions during a specific amount of time and on a specific webpage. This means that those who do not know the name of your TodaysMeet page cannot gain access to it. You can use the website without creating an account or you can use different tools when creating one. You only need to give a name to your room, choose the amount of time you want it to stay open (between one hour to one month) and click on  »Open Your Room ». Students can join the room using the correct website URL once it is launched. They simply need to write down their name before writing in the text box. The strongest similarity between TodaysMeet and Twitter is the limited amount of characters. Students can only write 140 characters, which correspond to two or three sentences.

If you are interested in using this website, here is a list of 20 useful ways to use TodaysMeet.

ESL APPLICATION

As a teacher in becoming, TodaysMeet comes in handy. Even though I have never used this tool, I can already picture myself using it in the future. Jane Hart compiled a list in 2014 from the votes of 1038 learning professionals in order to identify the best tools to learn. TodaysMeet is rated 94 out of 100, Twitter being rated first. It means that even if it is not as popular as Twitter, TodaysMeet is a good option to consider. In fact, Kim Kingdom said:  »I regularly use this tool when Twitter is not appropriate to create a backchannel ». TodaysMeet is used to create discussions where students and teachers can share their thoughts. I would use it for an activity done with a movie or a book. I would present the movie or the book to students then ask them to write something they like and disliked about it on the class webpage. This activity can be done in class (if students are allowed to use Iphones or laptops) or at home since TodaysMeet can be used everywhere. You could even do this activity with students from other schools!

TodaysMeet is also useful for teamwork. When doing group activities, students can access TodaysMeet to do a brainstorming. If they are in teams of four, each student can log on the webpage assigned to their group to share their ideas. This is great because students are going to be able to reach this page at home to pursue the work done in class. The teacher can look at this page to give feedback to teams who are not working equally. The teacher can post a question on the TodaysMeet page and allow students to answer directly in the text box. James Socol value the fact that the advantage of backchannel chat is that every student has a voice, no matter how shy.

As effective as it can be, there are some disadvantages of using TodaysMeet. Erin Brereton thinks that additional graphics and sounds would make the design more dynamic. After exploring the page, I do realize that it is confusing at the beginning because not everything is explained on the website. It looks like a blank page and nothing jumps to your eyes. Erin also said:  »Teachers will most likely need to propel conversations with initial and follow-up questions ». I agree with this statement because students will not be able to begin discussions by themselves, especially in their second language. TodaysMeet requires preparation before conducting the task. After trying both Twitter and TodaysMeet, I must say that Twitter is easier to use. It is more intuitive and self-explanatory.

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