Skip to main content

Super Bowl Party - Twitter Style


Last Sunday, we hosted a Super Bowl party for more than 250 people.  We had more than enough food and beverages on hand, the event was engaging and fun, and the clean-up took less than 10 minutes.  How did we do it?  A little blue bird helped us. 
Through Twitter, (#superbowl, #SB47, #lightsout, #doritos, #clydesdales, #oreo) we were able to connect with others during the game.  We shared football commentary, joked about the commercials, and shared bits of information unavailable through the television broadcast.


It was through Twitter, that we first started getting explanations of the power outage at the Superdome. Twitter help us identify the members of Destiny's Child that took the half-time stage with Beyonce. (where was the red Corvette?) Twitter helped us cheer a 108 yard kick-off return, and criticize a non-defensive holding call at the end of the game.

Twitter also opened the door to "real-time" marketing by reminding us that we can still "dunk in the dark".
Sure, more than 108 million U.S. viewers saw the Ravens edge the 49ers in an exciting, and somewhat sloppy contest.  And we watched dozens of commercials ranging from hilarious to sentimental to disgusting.  My two favorites, "God Made a Farmer", and "Brotherhood".  But the real winner of the evening might have been Twitter, with more than 24 million tweets during the game, including 5.5 million during the half-time show.  The onset of the power outage saw a spike of 231,500 tweets per minute.  Half of the commercials (at a record cost of $3.8 million / 30 seconds) contained a hashtag.  You can bet that all of next year's commercials will contain hashtags.

Like millions of Americans, we thoroughly enjoyed our Twitter Party with Super Bowl 2013 as the backdrop.  We were engaged, entertained, and became better educated. (Teachers take note)

Here are my suggestions for improving #SB48 and beyond
  1. Have major college marching bands post a performance video to YouTube.  Fans vote for a winner to perform during 1/2 time of the Super Bowl.  Tradition, time efficient, tasteful.
  2. Regardless of network affiliation, fans vote for the play-by-play and color commentating team for the network that broadcasts the game.
  3. Schedule the game to immediately precede President's Day, or create a national holiday for the day following the Super Bowl.
  4. Play the game in the city who's SB participating team earns the best regular season record.
  5. Isn't "America the Beautiful" a more appropriate national anthem?  And if anyone can sing it half as well as Ray Charles did - then hand them the mic and let 'em go!
What was the highlight of your #SB47 experience?  What suggestions do you have for making a monumental event even better?
Teachers - How can social media support and enhance learning for your students?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Teachers Can Learn From Effective Coaches

In my educational world teaching and coaching involve the same processes. The people that impacted my own learning most significantly were coaches. Could it be that great coaches were ahead of their time with respects to instructional best practices? Let's take a look at ten coaching practices that thankfully have found their way into the classroom. http://www.coachwooden.com/files/PyramidThinkingSuccess.jpg Standards-based Grading - coaches aren't concerned with arbitrary measures of success such as letter grades. Great coaches identify a requisite set of skills that are necessary for advancement and success. Promotion and achievement are based upon clearly identified levels of skill mastery.  Authentic assessment - coaches are looking for their athletes to demonstrate their skill mastery under game-like situations. The best coaches incorporate game simulations and competitive, game-like drills into their practices. Winning coaches will use the contests as assess...
Post a Comment
Read more

Board Games in the School Library: 3 Reasons Why It's a Winning Play

"Play is the highest form of research."  - Albert Einstein “Play is the work of the child.”  – Maria Montessori In our recently remodeled school media center, we have a space dedicated to active engagement in fun learning activities. Part maker space, part literacy lounge, board games are being incorporated to promote a culture of joyful learning. Whether it's a game of Rummy , Yahtzee , or Scrabble , family game night serves as a communication elixir and solidifies our domestic climate of togetherness. Shouldn't similar opportunities for interaction, challenge, and fun exist somewhere in our schools? Broken families, cultural fragmentation, and poverty are impacting opportunities for children to play. As we unpacked and tagged our new media center games, I was more disappointed than shocked by the number of students who had never played Monopoly , Boggle , or Sorry . One skeptical teacher commented, "Oh great, now we're letting students pl...
2 comments
Read more

Self-Directed vs. Self-Determined Learning; What's the Difference?

"We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us, and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for ourselves." - Stephen Downes In this age of abundance of information, shifting classroom pedagogy isn't nearly enough to make learning in school more relevant and authentic for the learner. Self-directed learning ( andragogy ), and self-determined learning ( heutagogy ) are the ideals necessary in making students " future ready " to live and learn in a web-connected world. While original research applied these concepts to mature learners, it has become apparent that even young children have an abundant capacity for recognizing and directing their learning. Anyone who has observed toddlers learning how to walk and talk understand the motivation and skill development that quickly develops during these processes. Considered by some to be on a learning continuum, self-directed learning, and self-determined ...
Post a Comment
Read more