Archives
Tags
Meta
Twitter and me…
July 2nd, 2008 by misterel
Have just been re-reading my posts and have realised that twitter has been mentioned, linked to, but not really explained… Also I think I am a visual learner… Twitter is the biggest word in the tag cloud I added!!! So I’ll try and explain how I use Twitter and the benefits you can get from it.
In simple terms Twitter is a micro blog. You can only post 140 characters at a time. I’m guessing originally people were just posting day to day activities, thoughts etc that they felt like posting. However, because you can follow and be followed by anyone, twitter has developed unofficial networks of people that share resources, ideas etc. In surfing terms I’m still a bit of a ‘grommet’ when it comes to twitter. I’m following more people than follow me and I’m still getting to grips with the whole process.
To be honest though, twitter has become my first port of call for info and the response time from other users has been fantastic. The big question is, can it be used in education. I have started to dabble with this idea and so far I’m still undecided. I introduced the concept of twitter to my sixth form ICT students, they have all made accounts and now follow each other and a generic ICT twitter account that I set up. I use this to post useful links and info about the lessons. The beauty of it is, I can’t write to much and neither can they.
There are some teething problems… Although I may think that ICT innovation and new ideas are in the realm of the next generation, none of my pupils had heard of twitter and it therefore took them a while to understand the concept. Secondly, they have to actively check their twitter account for new tweets… They seem to be a tad lazy at this. So, will wait and see how well they get on with it and will post here accordingly. In the grand scheme of things it would be fantastic if the school could have its own generic twitter account and every parent followed it…. one day.
Posted in Resources, Teaching & Learning | tagged blog, education, grommet, ICT, innovation, Resources, tweets, twitter | | 1 Comments
