7 Things You Should Know about Twitter
What is it?
Twitter is a social networking tool that allows you to "tweet" your status in 140 characters or less.
Who's doing it?
Educators, celebrities, high-tech gurus and professionals. You may even find a few of your colleagues there.
How does it work?
First you create your account. From there, you can customize your page and begin tweeting your own thoughts. By adding friends, you can follow what other people are saying.
Why is it significant?
Twitter has been compared to the office water cooler where people come together to chat about a variety of topics. It is a great way to network and not only get a feel for what other people are doing and how they feel about it, but also for sharing information and links to resources. This can be invaluable from a professional standpoint.
What are the downsides?
A common complaint about Twitter is that it encourages useless interaction, can be distracting, and wastes time.
Where is it going?
Numerous new applications are being developed. Tweetdeck will streamline your tweets and notifications. Twitterfeed allows posts to your blog to automatically be tweeted. With Digsby, you can centralize e-mail, IM and social networking accounts into one desktop program. For a list of what kinds of applications are available for Twitter click here.
What are the implications for teaching and learning?
Twitter allows you to step out of the traditional lecture/take notes mode. Try allowing your students to tweet their reflections on a lecture as you are speaking. Have students interact with one another via Twitter when working on a project. As reflection about one's learning has been shown to aid comprehension and retention, ask students to reflect on a topic and tweet both their own thoughts and a response to their classmates' thoughts. Ask attendees at a conference to tweet their thoughts about the sessions for those who are not able to attend.
Source:
Educause Learning Initiative. (2007). 7 things you should know about Twitter. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7027.pdf
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