“Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!” (Bambi)
The first time that I heard about the social networking site, Twitter, I immediately thought of the discussion between Owl and Bambi over birds that flew around chasing each other in the spring. It’s interesting that Owl’s description almost sounds a bit like Twitter. Imagine--You’re surfing along on the internet, quite happily alone, when you discover an application that has the power to make you weak in the knees at the very thought of meeting new people who have the same interests while filtering out the ads and other noise that you’re not looking for. This leads you to becoming twitterpated at the very thought as you sign up.
Twitter is a free social networking microblog service that enables text messages or “tweets” of 140-characters in length. This application is described as the short messaging service of the Internet as it ranks in the top 50 most popular websites of the world. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s idea guy, states that the name “twitter” means "a short burst of inconsequential information," and "chirps from birds" as he explains how the name was derived. The beauty of Twitter’s inception is that it is a no advertising site; however, advertisers can still target users based on their history of tweets and in my case, deceived me by claiming to have library interests when, in fact, they were selling a product. Twitter collects personal information upon joining but I wasn’t aware until recently that Twitter shares it with third parties and has the right to sell that personal information if the company changes hands. I presume this is how “free” sites make their operational money. Twitter accommodates multiple uses that range from socialization, to spreading news quickly, to finding peers, or following topics of interest. Twitter has the capability to connect tweets and photos anywhere in the world and has been used as a rallying tool and a method of communication with the outside world by users during protest rallies seen as impinging on government regulations and policies such as in China and Iran. In each of these countries, users were able to use their messaging devices such as iphones, blackberries to get their messages to the world before their arrests and instigated worldwide media coverage of the civil injustices that were occurring behind the curtains of secrecy. For that, I applaud Twitter and those quick thinking users. Although I have recently been a small part of a natural disaster which instilled panic and mayhem in all those in attendance, and although we stopped briefly to snap a couple of photos, creating a message to post on Twitter was not my first concern—running to safety, however, was. My thinking may have been different had I been the target of civil injustice.
Twitter's short writing format demands concise, engaging writing, and that's a skill most people need to improve. D.G. Lynch offers practical advice to help users avoid common tweet writing blunders. He suggests that since signs and new abbreviations are being created constantly, users should avoid texting abbreviations out of respect to those who find them annoying or who don’t know the language. Secondly, Lynch suggests that putting time into creating a tweet is optimal since thoughtful tweets are more likely to engender a response. Thirdly, he suggests making your title or message enticing to the targeted audience. Instead of just inserting a link, select a brief quote from the information, use an abbreviated link, and hashtags. “The process of constructing a good Twitter message takes careful thought, time and analysis” (Lynch, 2009)
While I do believe that Twitter offer some use in the classroom, educators must guard against using this application just because it’s there. Uses of Twitter in the classroom include: encouraging study groups, and providing links to current events, posting assignments and announcements, following and taking polls in elections or surveys, providing class updates for parents/students and live backchannel during presentations/videos, connecting with people from around the world, collaborating on assignments, providing questions and answers for students are they arise. While each of these uses has merit depending on the age of the students, it seems that increasingly, the locus of control is on teachers to provide this information yet the concept of using online tools in the classroom is to provide students with options and control for their learning. Aren’t educators then, simply taking the control from being front and center in a classroom to online environments? To me, excellent use of Twitter comes in the form of tweets announcing and updating information during a science experiment such as the hatching of ducklings. Photos sent along with the text provide further information. This service provides parents with a means of having meaningful conversations with their children. One particularly unique project that I discovered was regarding the US politician, John Adams. One of the curators at a museum library discovered his journal entries and immediately thought that since they were approximately the same length as a tweet, decided to create a profile and send out the journal entries as tweets. This project is meaningful, especially to students and provides users with information on historical aspects. A phenomenal number of people are following John Adams’ tweets. Many major news sites, like CNN and the BBC, have Twitter feeds so having staff and students catch up on current events is a viable use of Twitter. I also think of a short story, On the Rainy River, from the English 30-1 curriculum which requires background about the Vietnam War for understanding the story. Twitter could provide authentic learning if students were required to post tweets as soldiers while attempting to get to the heart of the emotion and history of the war, or keeping the tweets in the context of the character from the story as communication between Tim to his parents and friends regarding his decision to go to war. By including media such as Twitpic this format of learning could be a very powerful means of conveying understanding from that story.
While I do believe that Twitter offer some use in the classroom, educators must guard against using this application just because it’s there. Uses of Twitter in the classroom include: encouraging study groups, and providing links to current events, posting assignments and announcements, following and taking polls in elections or surveys, providing class updates for parents/students and live backchannel during presentations/videos, connecting with people from around the world, collaborating on assignments, providing questions and answers for students are they arise. While each of these uses has merit depending on the age of the students, it seems that increasingly, the locus of control is on teachers to provide this information yet the concept of using online tools in the classroom is to provide students with options and control for their learning. Aren’t educators then, simply taking the control from being front and center in a classroom to online environments? To me, excellent use of Twitter comes in the form of tweets announcing and updating information during a science experiment such as the hatching of ducklings. Photos sent along with the text provide further information. This service provides parents with a means of having meaningful conversations with their children. One particularly unique project that I discovered was regarding the US politician, John Adams. One of the curators at a museum library discovered his journal entries and immediately thought that since they were approximately the same length as a tweet, decided to create a profile and send out the journal entries as tweets. This project is meaningful, especially to students and provides users with information on historical aspects. A phenomenal number of people are following John Adams’ tweets. Many major news sites, like CNN and the BBC, have Twitter feeds so having staff and students catch up on current events is a viable use of Twitter. I also think of a short story, On the Rainy River, from the English 30-1 curriculum which requires background about the Vietnam War for understanding the story. Twitter could provide authentic learning if students were required to post tweets as soldiers while attempting to get to the heart of the emotion and history of the war, or keeping the tweets in the context of the character from the story as communication between Tim to his parents and friends regarding his decision to go to war. By including media such as Twitpic this format of learning could be a very powerful means of conveying understanding from that story.
Twitter’s popularity as a social networking application has spurred many third party applications that are attempting to make Twitter even more useful and connected to user interests. On such application that I tried it TweetGrid which allows users to view content from several different tweets being followed. It allows you to divide your viewing page into a variety of columns and rows and easily import topics in which you are interested. Potentially a user could be viewing 3 rows by 3 columns worth of information all at the same time. Although this may be convenient for some, I found the page too cluttered and frustrating to view. Initially, I selected the 3X3 configuration but once I had added several search terms, I felt that this was not something that I would use due to the clutter so I did not continue with it. Possibly is I were to continue and get used to the information rich page, I would find this application useful. TweetGrid incorporates easy to follow directions and even allows you to insert a widget on your blog or website. Although easy to install, I chose not to do so since at this time I do not feel the necessity to watch that many search items.
Tweet Grid video
Using much the same format, TweetDeck allows you to connect contacts from Facebook and other social networking applications. The window is divided into three columns: all friends, replies, direct messages. It plays a chirp whenever you have a tweet on your friend timeline but luckily this feature can be turned off to save sanity. TweetDeck offers features such as a text box to type or past a Web address that needs shortening, TweetShrink which shortens overall character count if your text is running too long, adding or deleting a column to either include more or decrease search capability, tweet directly from the site and share photos, and avoid Twitter spam. The Spam button deletes the message from view, blocks the user and reports them to Twitter. Because of this feature alone, TweetDeck is an application that I suggest to users and will likely find useful in the future should I require extensive tweeting.
Most schools and libraries are using Twitter as an announcement page and some have linked it to their school websites. NYC covers choices for enrolment into their programs on its Twitter page but it looks more like a page befitting of a wiki. Augustana Faculty of the University of Alberta recruitment councillors use Twitter as a means of updating potential students as to what needs to be submitted and timelines involved. In this manner, many universities are gaining a marketing/public service presence, some provide customer service for those with concerns or questions which increases and opens the lines of communication, and other librarians use Twitter to collaborate with colleagues when they have a question or concern. Universities and libraries find Twitter’s real-time broadcasting medium a benefit to their programs; however, when it is down as it has been over several days this week, I can only say that I am happy that I don’t have a classroom full of students waiting to use this application for a project. Likewise, universities and schools using Twitter to disperse information will need to be lenient when setting deadlines if the application is down for a length of time. Because of this, it is also advisable that not only one application be relied upon; there needs to be a web site that offers similar information and in case the whole internet connection is down, as it was for a week in our area last year, institutions must have content available in a physical format as well.
Twitter, has been likened to attending a big cocktail party filled with diverse and (typically) civilized conversation, some of it is mundane and frivolous in nature, while other conversation is poignant to current issues and topics, provoking, informing, and engaging. Although I was “twitterpated” when I first began using Twitter and connecting with valuable information sources, I am feeling less inclined today to rely on this or any application. Twitter has an excellent reputation for being stable; however, when Murphy’s law strikes, it always selects what you need the most. For me, today, that’s Twitter!
References:
Cooper-Taylor, C (2009, 07, 22) 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education, Blog by Carol, http://cooper-taylor.com/blog/2008/08/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-education/
Kolbert, L. (2009, 087, 09) Twitter in Schools; What Does it REALLY Look Like?, A GeekyMomma’s Blog, http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2009/07/twitter-in-schools-what-does-it-really.html
Lynch, C (2009, 04, 30). Twitter Tips: How to Write Better Tweets. It Drilldown, Retrieved August 1, 2009, from http://www.cio.com/article/491372/Twitter_Tips_How_to_Write_Better_Tweets?page=1&taxonomyId=1461
Twitter. (2009, 07, 31). Twitter. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved August 1, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Twitter. (2009, 07, 31). Twitter. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved August 1, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Welch, Jack, Welch, Suzy, Why We Tweet in Business Week, 00077135, 6/15/2009, Issue 4135; retrieved on August 1, 2009 at http://web.ebscohost.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=101&sid=9207f0a9-8147-4091-8e54-5e8c464157e6%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JmxvZ2lucGFnZT1Mb2dpbi5hc3Amc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZlJnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#db=a9h&AN=40930904
I had no idea until I read your blog that Twitter shared the personal information they collect from their users. It's things like this that make me not want to join online networks.
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