I'll follow you if you follow me!

[Twitter cartoon]. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from http://freshneasybuzz.blogspot.com/2009/01/twitter-me-this-batman-are-you-using.html

Newsrooms around the world use this tool for up to the second information. Barack Obama uses it to announce press conferences to the world. What is it you may ask? Why, Twitter of course! When I first talked about Twitter and tweeting to my dad, his face scrunched up as he said, "twit what?" I must confess that this was my initial reaction when I first heard of the mysterious world of Twitter. Popularity in this micro-blogging application has skyrocketed with the number of visitors increasing by 95% in March alone from 9.8 million to 19.1 visitors according to a recent Tech Crunch report. Businesses are using Twitter for free advertising, celebrities are using Twitter to increase their popularity and political organizations are using twitter to campaign. This leads me to wonder, what it the appeal of Twitter? Why would I want to "follow" some random people's thoughts?
[Twitter Chart]. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/24/twitter-eats-world-global-visitors-shoot-up-to-19-million/

What is Twitter?

For those of you who are "non-tweeters", Twitter is a tool that allows users to post updates about their thoughts, activities, etc. Each "tweet" is no longer than 140 characters making the messages very condensed micro-thoughts posted for others to read. You can choose to follow other's Twitter pages and their tweets are automatically posted to your homepage.

What's the allure of Twitter? Clive Thompson states that

Individually, most Twitter messages are stupefyingly trivial. But the true value of Twitter … is cumulative. The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.

So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it’s experiential. Scrolling through random Twitter messages can’t explain the appeal. You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends… It’s practically collectivist — you’re creating a shared understanding larger than yourself.

Entering the world of Twitter

Well, Clive says that you have to enter the world of Twitter to understand it, so I figured why not give it a try. A few weeks ago, I signed up for my Twitter account. It was simple enough. After this initial step, I thought, now what? I searched for people I may know and came up blank. So, I threw out a random first tweet to get the ball rolling. By the end of the day I had two followers, both people I did not know. Wow, that tweet must have been incredibly thought provoking! A couple of days later, I decided to try to find my fellow classmates. I manage to find a few and became followers of their tweets. Now, whenever I open my homepage, I can see what they are up to. Being somewhat of a news junkie, I also remembered hearing that many of my favorite news stations were also on Twitter, so I signed up to follow a couple of them. I must admit that I have enjoyed getting the up to the minute news feeds from CBC Saskatchewan. Each tweet simply lists the headline and then offers a link to read more. Some of the other feeds I have chosen to follow do not seem to be posting regularly making me wonder if I should be following them at all. In order to get into the spirit of becoming a true tweeter, I have tried to post some thoughts regularly.

To effectively use Twitter, I have had to learn some new language. To save you the confusion that I felt, I have listed a few pointers for those of you starting out:
1. RT-this means retweet and is used if you are reposting a tweet that you read that was originally posted by someone else.

2. Replying to a question-I noticed that many tweets are questions to the group of followers. To reply to a question posted, type @ followed by the user's name (e.g. @ttanner2008) and then type your message. This tweet will be posted for all to see but will be addressed to the person you are wishing to respond to.

3. Sending a direct message-If you want to send a direct message to someone, type d and then the user name (e.g. d ttanner2008). This will send the message directly to the person you want to respond to and they will receive and e-mail notification.

[Twitter Cartoon]. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from http://www.kullin.net/2008/10/twitter-cartoon.html

Twitter in the Classroom

When initially thinking about using Twitter in the classroom, my mind immediately envisioned thirty students mindlessly typing random messages in a chaotic fashion, aka every teacher's nightmare. However, upon further research, I can see some potential uses for Twitter in classrooms with older students. Zach Miners lists some potential uses for Twitter in the classroom. These include organizing academic networks, virtual study groups, and resource sharing. He also suggests using Twitter to create interactive response journals where students read the text and then tweet their thoughts and pose questions to the group.

In the video, The Twitter Experiment, Dr. Rankin and her students extol the virtues of using Twitter in a University setting. Some of the benefits identified in the video were that Twitter
-forces students to get out of their comfort zone
-increases the interest of students
-offers a non-threatening forum to express ideas
-provides an opportunity for everyone to have a voice
-allows students to add to the knowledge found on the Internet
-is a great study tool as students can review past tweets
-forces students to really focus on what their opinion is before tweeting
-is accessible from anywhere

The Twitter Experiment. (2009). Retrieved August 4, 2009 from http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/24/twitter-eats-world-global-visitors-shoot-up-to-19-million/

Willis Whitlock believes that there are benefits to using Twitter in education as opposed to blogs and wikis. He states:

Many teachers find that Twitter is a better online collaboration tool than wikis or blogs. Some of the reasons include:

Easy access- Twitter is invisible technology. The student doesn’t need to learn a set of buttons and menus.

Low Risk- Reluctant learners can handle 140 characters (usually less). There’s little chance of failure.

Real time- Students see their project grow as they work. Collaborators can work from different computers with out fear of clogging the project (a problem with many blogs and wikis)

No formatting- Given bells and whistles, many students will ring and toot instead of write. The simplicity of Twitter offers only a place to add text.

Concise writing- 140 characters means each word has to be necessary. The process of posting to Twitter forces students to become better writers.

Grosseck and Holotescu caution that there may be some downsides to using Twitter in the classroom. If using Twitter in the classroom, it could become a major distraction for teachers trying to lecture. Twitter may cause a teacher to be on-call 24/7 as students can tweet at any time of day. This may blur the teacher's personal and professional lives. Also, there is a risk of receiving Twitter spam. That is, your class may gain followers who are outside of your classroom.

Twitter for professional development

Perhaps the most exciting use for Twitter is in its ability to offer professional development opportunities. David Wetzel argues that Twitter offers time strapped teachers an easy way to collaborate with colleagues, provides a quick way to share resources, and offers a forum for self-reflection. By following other educators, teachers are able to stay current on topics of interest to them and are able to enlist advice from a reliable network of teachers. Twitter may help to eliminate the isolation that beginning teachers sometimes feel as they are able to seek advice from others in the profession in a non-threatening environment. Katie Ash adds that teachers can use Twitter as a way to promote professional development events, seminars, etc.

Blogger Frieda Foxworth uses Twitter almost exclusively for professional development. She states that she was selective in whom she chose to follow, choosing only like minded professionals and, as a result, has created an entire community of professionals to collaborate with. She states:

As I interact with these people in ongoing short phrases, we have a shared understanding of what it means to be passionate about the role of technology in education. We share great ideas, our successes, our frustrations, and things we’ve learned in the midst of the sprinkled tidbits of our personal lives. Teacher collaboration has been identified as a key factor in raising student achievement, and through social networking tools like Twitter, I can collaborate and learn from the best around the world.

In order to enhance my Twitter experience, I decided to search for some "like minded professionals" of my own. I came across k3teachers. She is a retired K-3 teacher who has tweeted some fabulous stuff on teaching in a K-3 classroom. By looking at the list of who she follows, I was easily able to identify others who have posted similar tweets and, thus, I have began creating my network.

There are some downsides to using Twitter for PD purposes. As you begin to follow more people, your homepage will quickly fill up with tweets. You will waste a ton of time if you try to read every tweet. Using Tweetdeck to help you sort your tweets into groups of your choosing may help to eliminate some of the "clutter". To help your followers, try to keep your tweets relevant for your audience.
[Twitter cartoon]. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/179742.html

"The twitter experience is only as good as your network." (elearnr) I discovered this downside in a real hurry. Without having someone meaningful to follow and read, Twitter quickly becomes an empty void in which to throw your thoughts into. It takes time to find someone to follow. Once you find someone you like following, try seeing who they follow in order to increase your network.

So, at the end of the day, do I want to follow some random person's every thought? No, absolutely not. However, I do want to find and follow people who are like minded professionals, people who have insights and knowledge that will help me to grow and develop as a professional. I probably never will care if someone is going out to by groceries or is renovating their deck, but I do see value in learning from a collective of peers. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. Or, in the case of Twitter, as many heads as you choose to follow!