Twitter

The whole world’s a Twitter …

REFLECTIONS ON LEARNING

Twitter is certainly becoming extremely popular on the web. In fact it was talked about so much in the media last year that I even set up my own account and gave it a try about a year ago. I set up the account and within a day I had one of our distance learning teachers following me. I was impressed to have someone follow me that quickly. I followed a handful of people and tried several tweets but after about a month of trying it out I really did not “get it” so I stopped using and following it.

When our class started I made a decision to really give it another try. Perhaps I was just missing something my first time around. Maybe I was not following anyone that had anything to tweet about. Surely if I followed the people that were suggested in the course outline I would get a better understanding of how to effectively use this. One of the first things that I did differently this time was to look for and add several people to follow. By doing this several people started to follow me as well.

Since my initial trial of Twitter I have gotten a cell phone (yes I know that I am a bit late getting into that too) and have found it wonderful to use SMS text messages to keep in touch with family. I love this technology and the restriction to 140 characters in Twitter appears to be very similar to text messaging so I thought that this would now make more sense to me.

I also did a much more thorough job at looking at my profile and the settings in my Twitter account. I had not paid much attention to the settings in the program and I wonder how many others blindly go about using this and similar services without much thought about these settings and the privacy or lack there of that is inherent in the system. I updated my profile and included a picture of me. I think this is important to include so that people have a better idea of who they are actually talking to.

I did not go so far as to have tweets sent to my cell phone. I worried about the amount of data I would get sent on my phone and the resulting charges. Another consideration was that my phone would be constantly buzzing indicating new messages and I would lose the messages I valued in the forest of tweets that were less important and not as meaningful to me.

By following as many people as I did this time I learned some of the language and finer points of Twitter. I learned things such as how to use @reply to reply directly to a tweet. I learned about the use of hashtags. This is where #tag is used to identify a group of similar tweets.

Even with the addition of all of these new people to follow I was still struggling with using Twitter. I think for me the way I had it set up was limiting. I did not have new tweets being sent to my cell phone as explained earlier and thus the only way I could follow tweets was to actually go to my twitter.com page and look. Well this does not happen on a regular basis for someone that has a busy schedule. I did a bit of research and found a few suggestions for some add in software. The one that I installed and have been using for quite some time now is Twitteroo. This software is small and easy to install. It runs when your computer is turned on and alerts you when you have new tweets. Not only does it alert you but it displays the tweets in a little pop-up window. You can customize the way it displays and responds. It is very good in that I don’t have to now consciously remember and take the time to go look at my Twitter account and I don’t have to run it through my cell phone. By using Twitteroo I have been able to stay on top of the tweets coming from the people I follow.

The YouTube video here discusses How to use Twitter.




One feature they talk about is a Twitter gadget for Windows Vista. The gadget is similar to Twitteroo and would be helpful but it is only for Vista so I will have to wait until I upgrade my OS to give it a try.

Another piece of the learning for me has again been the trailfire for twitter. In particular I found that a very useful link from the trailfire is a link to a web page called The Twitter Guidebook which explains everything you need to know about Twitter. In particular I liked the description of the language being used with Twitter. Don’t get me wrong. I said I liked the description of the language. That doesn’t mean I am a big fan of the “cute” little names and the use of “tw….” For everything that is done. Just too much!!!

Twitter is still in its growing phase and I think that the world is just trying to figure out ways in which to use it effectively. This story illustrates how law enforcement has found a way to use twitter.

This YouTube video discusses 100 twitter secrets and talks about the website http://twittinsecrets.com/

PERSONAL LEARNINGS

What do I see in my future with Twitter? Well I haven’t given up on it just yet but I think that I will start to follow more famous people and use it more as entertainment and news than work. It really is becoming more and more prominent and I don’t go a day without hearing about the latest person to be on Twitter and encouraging people to follow them on Twitter. I have not given up on it just yet but I am finding it very hard to follow at this very busy time in my life. Perhaps when things settle down a bit and I am through with all of these classes I will be able to use and enjoy it.

It is interesting to note that my 3 children have no interest in Twitter at all. They are very aware of it but just have no interest in setting up an account and using it for their own use. Perhaps this should not be too surprising as Wikipedia reports that “Just 11 percent of Twitter's users are aged 12 to 17, according to comScore.” With demographic usage like that I really wonder if it will be able to continue to grow and find new audiences and usage. I suppose that it is still quite new and institutions have not really started to use it. Perhaps as they go through school and university in the next five years they will be expected to use it as part of that. The fact that they have no desire to use Twitter is interesting also since they are rabid users of text messaging which is basically the same thing. Perhaps over time these two separate parts will merge and they will be using Twitter in new ways.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

I can see how some people have really taken to this but I still find that much of the content of Twitter is a huge waste of time. I think my feelings on this were validated when I read about the results of a study regarding Twitter in Wikipedia

“Pear Analytics analyzed 2,000 tweets (originating from the US and in English) over a 2-week period from 11:00a to 5:00p (CST) and separated them into six categories:

· Pointless babble - 41%

· Conversational - 38%

· Pass-along value - 9%

· Self-promotion - 6%

· Spam - 4%

· News - 4%”

This study showed that 79% of the tweets were pointless babble or conversational in nature. That is a lot of “stuff” to sift through for a busy person and I think that is one of the reasons why it is difficult for some people to take a liking to the service.

One of the most active people I have followed on Twitter has been Dean Shareski. He actually works in the school division adjacent to us and although I have never met him many of my colleagues no him. He is at the extreme end of using technology. I think that by him using twitter he has become quite well known. In fact when I was in San Antonio we were discussing it at our table and one of the teachers with us from the US said they knew him and followed his Twitter. This is an obvious example of how it can be used to become known worldwide.

Also at the ASCD conference I attended a short breakout session on Web 2.0 tools in schools. One of the people I sat with explained that his wife is a teacher and tweets homework and messages for parents. It is quite well liked and appreciated by her parent community.

Also the use of hash tags within twitter was highly present at ASCD conference. In one of the sessions that I attended we all participated and provided ideas to the session using twitter, the workshop leader’s friends and followers participated in the session. One lady was in Florida sitting on her deck enjoying a coffee while following us and adding her insight into the discussion at the San Antonio conference from the comfort of home. This is one of the applications that seems to appear in a lot of the readings I have done on the use of Twitter.

The following Youtube video discusses the use of Twitter in Education

Young (2010) describes the way a professor at Perdue University is using Twitter. He opens up the class and invites comments through Twitter though out the class. The article describes how doing this is quite a risk for the instructor as there is a definite loss of control. I tend to agree that this is one of reasons that twitter is not being taken on in schools as quickly as in other realms.

Ferriter (2010) writes an interesting article where he highlights the use of Twitter to allow for and facilitate differentiation of instruction. “We can use digital tools

to differentiate learning experiences for students.” I never thought of using it in this regard but it does provide that opportunity. Differentiation is one of the hot topics in education these days and I think that teachers struggle to know how to do this. If Twitter can be a tool to allow for it I think that teachers would be very eager to hear how it could be used to accomplish this.

Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools provides additional arguments for the use of Twitter in schools and the Science Based Parenting website has an article that provides some suggestions for twitter in schools. Here are the
TOP TEN SUGGESTIONS FOR TWITTER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

1. Keep it simple – No more than two tweets a day – unless there’s an emergency. Twitter should be used sparingly, patterned after the morning and afternoon announcements. Parents who sign up to follow the school system’s tweets don’t want to be bothered with unnecessary text messages.

2. Keep it smart – The tone of the tweets should be professional. Use of txtng shorthand should be avoided. Attempts at humor and casual folksiness should be avoided. Keep the messages short, simple, and direct.

3. Guide the parents – Plan on providing parents with an explanation of twitter and instructions on how to set it up and use it. Let them know what it is, how it works, why you are doing it, and how they can get started. Focus on the fact that it is free and simple.

4. Prioritize your data – Snow information, important news, and emergencies should take precedence. Then offer reminders about sports, clubs, and activities. Don’t saturate the flow of data with irrelevant nonsense.

5. Be useful and efficient – Administrators should be careful not to favor one sport or activity over another. Choose events of significance to tweet about, such as a reminder about the homecoming game or the soccer team’s regional championship. Don’t abuse twitter with random noise… nobody cares that the baseball team is playing an away game three counties away.

6. Protect your source – There are risks that the tweeting source will be compromised. Administration should be extremely cautious to restrict the tweet source to one person such as the school secretary or public relations director. The benefit of twitter is that the information tweeted to parents and students comes from one source, so as long as that source is careful not to lose his/her cell phone… all will be well. Try to keep your source confidential if possible.

7. Be timely – Try not to tweet during school hours unless it’s an emergency. It would be inappropriate to disrupt a class in the event that a student has neglected to turn off his cell phone. Save tweets for before or after school and resist the urge to send a tweet on weekends, holidays, or over the summer (except in the weeks before the 1st day of school).

8. Combine your tech – Use twitter as a way to link to the school blog and/or official web site. This allows parents and students to read more information if they are particularly interested in a specific tweet.

9. Use it as a resource for parents AND students – Invite the parents to allow students to register with twitter, so that messages can be received by students on their PC or cell phone. Reassure parents with a pledge to continue enforcing a ban on cell phones in the classroom. It might help to remind them that twitter can be used as a way for parents to keep tabs on their children and to communicate as a family. Be understanding when twitter is viewed with cynicism as just another tool to distract their kids with more gadgetry. The decision to follow tweets ultimately boils down to parenting style and is not the school’s concern since the service is optional.

10. Sell the concept to the community – Push the idea aggressively in the local media. Parents need to feel confident in the technology, and they need to adjust to the idea. Twitter is not new to tech-savvy net surfers, but parents will probably be unfamiliar with the format and skeptical of it’s benefits. But once they try it, they will like it… you just have to get the message across that it is useful and easy.

Yet with all of this advice and potential Twitter really has not taken hold at all in our school division. If it is being used it is not a part of the school day. I have not heard of anyone using or even requesting to use it. I just don’t think that teachers see how it can be used effectively in a classroom. They see it more as something that you might do for fun outside of school. Adding to this lack of knowledge are the roadblocks to the use. These are sites that are often blocked by school filters because those decision makers are even less likely to see how it can be useful. Adding to this is the continual fear and sensationalism reported in media. Just a couple days ago one of the lead stories on our local news was about a person that had been robbed. They blamed the robbery on the use of social networking sites (not twitter but it could have just as easily been that). It seems that media have a particular bias to report negative aspects of these tools.

Unless there are major changes in attitudes towards twitter in schools I really don’t see it becoming a part of a regular classroom. There may be some experimentation and real tech savvy teachers may use it to communicate with parents but beyond that it really is not being considered at this time.

References:

De Groot, J. (2010). Trailfire: Twitter. http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/trailview/77917

Ferriter, W. (2010). Why Teachers Should Try Twitter. Educational Leadership, 67(5), 73-74

Young, J.. (2010, March). TEACHING WITH TWITTER. The Education Digest, 75(7), 9-12.

http://sciencebasedparenting.com/2009/01/08/10-suggestions-for-twitter-in-public-schools/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter