Using Twitter as a Career Development Tool: A Middle School Experience

Using Twitter as a Career Development Tool: A Middle School Experience


By Allison Rosemond


The use of social media in career development continues to grow. From college career centers using Facebook for marketing career services to career-seekers using LinkedIn for networking, social media sites are fast becoming a mainstay of the career development process for adults. However, only within the last few years has the use of social media for career development trickled down to K-12 public schools. To help close the gap, readers will be introduced to the use of Twitter for virtual job shadowing at a middle school, consisting of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who learn through the experience of professionals representing several career clusters using 140 characters or less.


Overall, seven businesses and 15 employees participated. Also, the school collaborated with the Coordinator of the local Regional Education Center (REC) for Greenville County South Carolina to offer an orientation. South Carolina has 12 RECs across the state to assist in the implementation of Personal Pathways to Success, the state’s interpretation of the Education and Economic Development Act (2005). Through the collaboration with the local REC, the orientation allowed the participants to learn details of the virtual job shadowing project and, receive a Twitter ‘crash course’, about setting up an account and sending tweets. Employees were required to make their Twitter accounts public for the duration of the project. To read the entire article go to:

http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/61764/_PARENT/layout_details_cc/false

To view the students’ O*Net research activity and participant survey, email the author at arosemond@greenville.k12.sc.us. For more information on Personal Pathways to Success, visit http://recs.sc.gov