Do you Twitter? I do. Not a lot, it really gets irritating so I am an on-again, off-again Twitterer. Still, I added it as a widget on this blog – so, be a fellow Twitterer with me!
Twitter is a technology that gives you 140 characters to broadcast a message to a group of friends/subscribers. These messages are received as text messages on mobile phones, without needing to know someone’s phone number.
The basic idea behind Twitter is to have people answer the question “What are you doing?”
I did a Twitter search for “Distance Learning” and several comments popped up. When you click on one, it will take you to a blog-like page for the person/business that posted their content. I wondered what implications Twitter might have on education, and actually found an article with some helpful info.
David Parry at the University of Texas gave his students a Twitter assignment and found it to be an excellent exercise. Some of the benefits were that it increased class discussion in and out of the classroom, and “seemed to develop a sense of classroom community as students began to develop a sense of eachother outside the classroom space.”
There are several suggestions on how to incorporate Twitter in education:
· Remind students about homework, trips, etc.
· Allow students to compare thoughts about a topic – in or out of class
· Work collaboratively on stories, letters, papers
· Use it as an alert system campus-wide
In addition, I found a blog that offered a list by Chris Brogan on “50 ideas for using Twitter in Business” that could be adapted for education. I won’t list them all here, but I will pick out my (adapted) top 10:
· Point out interesting things happening in your classroom/campus/institution
· Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
· Ask ANY question – Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions
· Follow interesting people through Twitter
· Comment on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community
· Twitter can help direct students’ attention to good things
· Twitter in the classroom helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
· Twitter breaks news faster than other sources
· Twitter brings great minds together, and gives everyone daily opportunities to learn
· Last, but not least, Twitter just has a cool name – that MUST count for something!
So, what are you tweeting about?
Resources:
http://searchenginewatch.com/3630980
http://pbalocal.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/trend-alert-twitter/
http://www.marketingshift.com/2007/4/how-twitter-could-helped-virginia.cfm
Twitter is a technology that gives you 140 characters to broadcast a message to a group of friends/subscribers. These messages are received as text messages on mobile phones, without needing to know someone’s phone number.
The basic idea behind Twitter is to have people answer the question “What are you doing?”
I did a Twitter search for “Distance Learning” and several comments popped up. When you click on one, it will take you to a blog-like page for the person/business that posted their content. I wondered what implications Twitter might have on education, and actually found an article with some helpful info.
David Parry at the University of Texas gave his students a Twitter assignment and found it to be an excellent exercise. Some of the benefits were that it increased class discussion in and out of the classroom, and “seemed to develop a sense of classroom community as students began to develop a sense of eachother outside the classroom space.”
There are several suggestions on how to incorporate Twitter in education:
· Remind students about homework, trips, etc.
· Allow students to compare thoughts about a topic – in or out of class
· Work collaboratively on stories, letters, papers
· Use it as an alert system campus-wide
In addition, I found a blog that offered a list by Chris Brogan on “50 ideas for using Twitter in Business” that could be adapted for education. I won’t list them all here, but I will pick out my (adapted) top 10:
· Point out interesting things happening in your classroom/campus/institution
· Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
· Ask ANY question – Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions
· Follow interesting people through Twitter
· Comment on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community
· Twitter can help direct students’ attention to good things
· Twitter in the classroom helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
· Twitter breaks news faster than other sources
· Twitter brings great minds together, and gives everyone daily opportunities to learn
· Last, but not least, Twitter just has a cool name – that MUST count for something!
So, what are you tweeting about?
Resources:
http://searchenginewatch.com/3630980
http://pbalocal.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/trend-alert-twitter/
http://www.marketingshift.com/2007/4/how-twitter-could-helped-virginia.cfm
I have never used Twitter but I agree that it is a COOL name!! Our department is thinking about incorporating it to keep up with what everyone is doing and where everyone is going next. We normally check in with the secretary and tell her where we are going and that takes a trip down the hall into her office If we used Twitter, it would cut out having to visit the secretary every time we leave the office. Of course, this would cut out exercise, so maybe it's not such a good thing!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteI haven't used twitter either yet!), but this prmopts me to think it could have great value in our medical community for keeping track of our visiting nurses and other remote caregivers. Cool find!
ReplyDeleteHmm I'll have to think about how to use Twitter. Looking at the Twitter site it looks like some one can set up a Twitter account under any name. So if we all set up Twitter accounts with our login for this class we could reserve using our class Twitter sites to do Twitter entries about our class. I admit it I am Twitter challenged.
ReplyDeleteHi Teri,
ReplyDeleteJust so you know, I inadvertently posted (2) of my blogs as followers of your blog; one as "Diane: and the other as "Mountain Biking in Alaska". They are both me!
I have yet to try Twitter!
I know several high school aged students who use twitter all the time to talk with their friends. I've tried to find out how many teachers use it for school related work and those with whom I've spoken are not allowed to use it due to security issues in their districts.
Diane