Clif’s Notes

Twitter in Education

If you’ve spent much time in the blogosphere in the last six months you have likely heard about Twitter. I have mentally been writing this post for about ten days. I want to provide my critical review and share the pros and cons as I see them. I realized that many people have already covered the bulk of this information and I just found it unnecessary for me to fully cover this topic with my own original post. Therefore, here are a few BIG points that I briefly want to make followed by valuable resources to further pursue this topic.

1. There is value in the networking and real-time interaction that you can get using Twitter. Many educators and academics find this to be an effective strategy for dealing with the isolation that can come from working in the classroom or office. Imagine encountering technical difficulties during your lesson and having a means of receiving assistance within minutes. Consider the ability to receive assistance from others during a teachable moment in which you don’t know the answer to a student’s inquiry. Individuals like @nlowell, @sbrandt, and @room214 have provided me with much needed real-time assistance.
2. I admit that it is possible for Twitter to be used in non-productive ways. I do not care about the weather, meal plans, funny cat stories, or work schedule of individuals that I do not know (in real life or virtually), but I solve this issue by simply dropping them from my follow list. On the flip side, I don’t mind if individuals that I know/ respect do this. Hearing @mguhlin share about events at work or @berniedodge describe the weather in San Diego helps me know them a bit more and adds an additional layer of community within my online network.
3. The message to take away is that your experience with Twitter will be what you make it. You should customize and use it on an ongoing basis to meet your specific needs and interests.
4. Join my Twitter network by using the link in the Navigation menu to the right.

Resources

Here is a great introduction to Twittering.

This video provides a full overview for setting up and using Twitter.

Using Twitter with Learners

Twitted, Tweets and Young Learners

Twits Are (Not?) for Kids

Twitter - Meaningful or Trivial - Up to the Writer

Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom

Plan, Tweet, Teach, Tweet, Learn, Smile

Twitter for Academics

Will Twittering Catch on with Teachers?

Tools I’m Currently Using

Several have asked me to share the technologies that I’m frequently using these days. Here’s a short list of tools that I’m using on a regular basis. You can access my accounts for most of these tools using the Navigation menu.

Firefox - There are a variety of technical and security reasons to quit using Internet Explorer. Firefox is the browser of choice these days.

Wordpress - It’s clearly the content management system/ blogging platform of choice these days.

Trillian - Use and access all your different IM accounts through one platform.

Del.icio.us - Social bookmarking made simple and efficient.

Twitter - Twitter is a service that “puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload.” I use the Twitbin extension so that I can use the Twitter service even more easily.

YouTube, TeacherTube, and BlipTV - Using free accounts I setup channels allowing me to organize and share video with students and those with common interests.

SlideShare - A great way to share slide presentations. Be sure to checkout how easy it is to turn your presentation into a slidecast, too.

Feedburner - The “leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds.”

Zoho and Google Apps - These are free online office/ productivity tools. I’ve recently become more a fan of Zoho than Google because Zoho offers many more tools. Zoho’s Creator makes it possible and super easy to create your own online forms and databases without having your own server.

The following resources are also useful in helping you get your message out there and get connected: Digg, Social Poster, and Twitter

Here are other tools that I’m still trying: Flock (Combine your social tools into this Firefox-based browser), Second Life (I’m out of my comfort zone with this one), flickr (Good for work uses, but doesn’t meet our family’s needs) and facebook (It works well enough, but I don’t see the need for it).

When I finally migrate from a wordpress.com blog to a wordpress.org blog I’m going to start using Share This and Jiglu.

Go 2 Web 2.0 - Claims to be the complete directory of all the Web 2.0 technologies out there.

You can also take a look at other related posts I’ve written by clicking on the Free Educational Software link in the Navigation menu.

—————