Module 5.2
Nikki Wixo
Kathleen Scheeler
Twitter


Have you been “Tweeted?”

General Information

Twitter is a communication system used to keep people connected. People can write short messages, up to 140 characters long and have them quickly sent to all of their followers. Anyone can post “tweets,” but only their followers will have access to the messages on blogs, phones, and the twitter website.

Sign up was easy for this tool. Give them a bit of personal information, set up an account, verify that account through email, and start tweeting. Each registered person has access to a sign in page that keeps track of followers and the people you follow. It is easy to maneuver the site, and to keep all of your tweets organized. You are also able to search for other people and topics to see what people involved in those subjects are tweeting about. It is much simpler than other social networking sites.

There is no cost to become a member of Twitter, and the possibilities of who to follow are truly endless. If you don’t know what or who you’re looking for, you can easily get lost in the “Twitter” universe.

The help page on this site was really great. It offered video tutorials, and how to get started advice. It also had a very lengthy troubleshooting section, which is always helpful for struggling subscribers. The glossary was especially helpful; it explains all of the technical jargon along with the lingo, used in association with the site.

The uniqueness of Twitter is its brevity and its speed. It spreads information very quickly. However, Twitter is not used by school kids as much as other Web 2.0 tools. According to Manzo (2010), only about one percent of the 12 million Twitter users are 17 or younger (p. 40). The Twitter privacy policy states that it is not intended for those under the age of 13.

Uses and advantages of using Twitter include:

1. Create classroom chatter or conversations which helps create a sense of community
2. Worldwide tweets give a sense of the world and people around the globe.
3. Use at conferences as a means of communicating about events.
4. Use it for instant feedback on questions if it is set up on cell phones.
5. Follow famous people.
6. Collaborate with others with same interests, professional or personal.
7. Build a network of professionals, whether it is local or worldwide.
8. Use as a free marketing tool.
9. Make announcements.
10. Share websites.

Personal Experience from Nikki:

This tool has become very popular in the entertainment and small business world. I know several local businesses that tweet periodically. I had an easy time tracking some business names to begin following on twitter. Subsequently, I had a difficult time finding my group member through email on Twitter. When I typed the email address into the search button, they could not find an existing email address.

Twitter may not be used in the classroom often, but one way it could be beneficial is for “real time” updates and breaking news. For example, if you were a follower of NASA, a tweet could be sent whenever important events occur. On the other end a teacher could also have an account for her students to become followers on. She could tweet messages, updates, and reminders at any time.

Personal Experience from Katie:

I don’t know if it was my computer or Twitter this week, but the first time I tried to login, a message from Twitter came up saying that Twitter was over capacity and my login was unsuccessful. Another time a message told me that something is technically wrong, and my login did not work. I was able to get on otherwise.

Twitter is easy enough to send tweets, but I did not find it easy to use as a type of search engine to find information. I tried searching for people by name but was unsuccessful. I did finally remember a technology person who used Twitter, and I found an old email of hers with her Twitter name on it. I could not find her on Twitter by her real name because her Twitter name was different. Some of her tweets had links to educational links that were useful. I tried just searching on Twitter for libraries or librarians, but I got too much of people’s personal junk, some of which would was inappropriate. It was not so easy to find subject area information tweets.

Interestingly enough, on television this week a talk show host asked the audience to respond to a question via Twitter. The answers were then immediately shown. This is one mainstream use I see as an advantage of having Twitter.


Reference

Manzo, K. K. ( Winter 2010 supp.). Classroom connections@Twitter. Education Week,

40.