Twitter celebrated its five-year anniversary this week. That’s five years of public conversation on everything from breakfast choices to nation building. With more than 50 million tweets per day flying through Twitter’s network, the young social networking site is a force to be reckoned with.

In honor of Twitter’s fifth anniversary, I’m sharing the top five ways I use Twitter for education.

5. Keep Students Engaged During Lectures

Twitter is a great tool to facilitate backchannel conversation during class lectures. Although I rarely lecture, at times there’s really no other way to get basic information across. By encouraging students to use Twitter during class I’m able to engage students that might not feel comfortable speaking in front of the group. It’s also handy to pick up on topics that are going over students’ heads, which I can then address right away.

4. Find Guest Speakers

For some reason, my students are a million times more excited to hear about the “real world” from a guest speaker than from me, their boring everyday teacher. My Twitter network is my number one resource for finding and reaching out to potential guest speakers. In my experience, people active in social media tend to be more than willing to take a half hour out of their day to chat with eager students through Skype. If you’re just starting to build your network, use Twellow to search for active Twitter users by subject area.

3. Poll the Crowd and Get Instant Feedback

It’s not scientifically sound, but if you want to show your students the variety of thoughts, ideas and opinions out there in the world, Twitter can be an excellent way to do it. Use Survey Monkey to build a free survey on any topic – world affairs, favorite books, political topics, etc. – and send a link out to the Twittersphere to see what you get back. The Twitter community is also a great place to share student or class blogs and request comments.

2. Set Up Class Chat Sessions

I’ve had good success using TweetWorks, but several websites provide the capability to host private or semi-private Twitter chats. Whether you’re hosting a class chat or setting up online discussions between different classrooms, schools or countries, requiring students to tackle complex concepts in 140 characters leads to rapid and spirited discussions.

1. Join #edchat!

I can not recommend this weekly Twitter discussion enthusiastically enough. Although the hashtag is always active, #edchat officially takes place Tuesday at 12 noon and 7 p.m. EST for an hour each session. The crackling conversation is often described by newbies as “like drinking from a fire hose.” With hundreds of educators joining in the conversation, #edchat is a fantastic way to build your PLN.