URinvited2 to contribute to this page if you are a Twitter user or have questions.
If you are contributing, add your avatar below this box and your Twitter name to the list. Be sure to precede a major contribution to this page with your avatar. Feel free to change the page, to make the information more coherent.
If you have a question, please post them below
I have a question about Twitter
What has happened to the search function on Twitter? Now I can only add people by sending them an email invitation! I can't just type in their Twitter name and click follow. This is a major problem as I don't know the email adresses of people I want to follow, only their usernames! Pen.
Hey Pen, isn't it just this People search box? Joyce
kG Twitterers
Janet - janetbradley
Nathalie - travelinggnat
Joyce - catspyjamasnz
Fiona - Mrs_Banjer
Penelope - penelopet
Steve P - sjpalnz
Justyna - justyna17
Daniel - daniellynds
What is Twitter?
Twitter is an example of social networking software (SNS). It is sometimes called a micro-blogging tool because it only allows posts of maximum 140 characters. These posts are called 'tweets'. See Twitter Screenshot"The point of Twitter is to keep it short, to the point, and informative for yourself and other people."(BBC, 2007). The builders intention was to build an application around the question: "What are you doing?". Although some users do use it as a live stream of their day-to-day or minute-to-minute activities, most users have moved away from that.
In her treatment of Twitter as a marketing tool, Caroline Middlebrook states:"(it) is a real time broadcasting medium. You update, it is broadcast to your followers, and then it is largely forgotten (but not quite!)"
For most of the edublogging community, Twitter goes beyond broadcasting. It has tightened the network that was already established through blogging. The communication has become more direct and because of this, the exchange of tools, resources and ideas, has accelerated. Read edutwitterers' comments on this blog post which questions the added value of Twitter if one is already using a blog and rss. Jepke says:
I have found Twitter to be invaluable as a networking tool, support group, instant info source, and a great way to keep ‘in the know’ about what it happening in edtech (webinars, sites, blogs, podcasts, conferences, etc). One article I read, and have seen referenced many times, said an effective number for a PLN (personal learning network) is around 150. I probably didn’t feel an impact from twitter until I was following about 60+ people. There are those people who post ‘eating an egg’ or something like that, but the benefit is there. Install a twitter client like Snitter, or TwitterFox, or Twhirl and leave it open all day while you are working You’ll be amazed at what you learn, who you help, and the wonderful conversation in 140 character segments that are worth your while.
Tweets
Messages sent via Twitter can only be 140 characters long. They are usually called 'tweets' although some people say 'twits'. Most messages are broadcast to all users in the system. @tweets
The @ sign signifies that a message is aimed at a particular user, even though everyone can read the tweet. So @JanetBradley is aimed at Janet. D Tweets
The capital D followed by a space and a username makes a tweet into a direct tweet. It will only be seen by the sender and the recipient. For this aim, each has a Direct Message inbox in their Twitter account.
Twitter users
Twitter users call themselves twitterers, twits or tweeters or collectively the twitterverse. You read more creative names almost daily.
Following/Followers
In Twitter, you connect with people through stalking. As I posted in my blog:"Twitter is what you make it through sensible stalking. Who you are following and who is following you is critical to the quality of your Twitter experience.
Choose people who are exploring your field of interest (Wenger’s domain?) and pertinent thoughts, tools & technologies will come flying at you at the speed of light. You’ll make new contacts through them and hear just-in-time when events (webcasts, live conferences, or f2f conferences) are happening. "(Seitzinger, 2008)
Follow the conversation
To follow a thread of a user, log on to http://www.quotably.com. Insert a username and the thread of their conversations is created onscreen.
The Twitter Adoption Cycle
Not getting it? Just hang in there. Alan Levine blogs about the Twitter adoption cycle and explains that it may take some extended use to really grasp the power of Twitter for your personal learning. In a comment to a post by Chris Betcher, he goes on to say:"... we make a mistake when we judge the potential of a technology by what may be inane content that people currently use it for (Do we dismiss the technology of televsion circuits because of the crap shows on the tube??)"
Better Twittering
Integration with other programs
There are many applications that provide the user with access to Twitter. Having Twitter easily accessible makes a huge difference in the frequency and quality of use.
http://www.twitbin.com/Twitbin is an extension for Firefox that brings the power of twitter right in your browser. It sits in a lefthand pane, easily turned on and off (similar to Bookmarks pane). It allows you to view all tweets or only those of your friends. It is also possible to post (tweet) from within Twitbin and it even has some tools that make it easier to send @ or D tweets.
Snitter is a new Twittering tool that brings your tweets to your desktop, and works on both Macs and PCs. The application runs on Adobe AIR, and you’ll need to download it in order to enjoy all of its features. It very much resembles an instant messaging client. It sends a beep when an @ Tweet has been sent to the user.
10 Twitter Commandments
Read these commandments by CogDog and learn some tricks for being a more effective Twitterer.
List of Tweethonchos
Here are some interesting Twitterers to follow if you are interested in llinking into the ed tech twitterverse.
A live wimba session run by Joyce & Janet about Twitter.
This live session was open to all kG members (Twitterers and non-Twitterers). Topics that were covered:
Tour de Twitter (To follow and be followed, the all important @ sign, public, friends and direct tweets)
Some cool Twitterers we are following
Besides the site, how else can you use Twitter?
What makes it so useful (and addictive)?
And last but certainly not least, why & how should you as an educator use this?
You can listen & view this recording of Twitterfest. Please leave any comments at the bottom of this page. We appreciate all feedback.
Who's using Twitter in education?
Twittories
TwittoriesWriting a book together via Twitter. (I missed my turn - Joyce)
Will Richardon recently used Twitter to demonstrate the power of the network and collect information about educaitonal technology use for a large group of teachers he was working with. Many edubloggers contributed to the wiki after hearing about it on Twitter. I blogged about my participation.
Twitku
Briefly (and we do mean briefly), a twitku is a micro-haiku. A twitku follows the familiar proportions of a haiku, but in miniature form. Instead of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables each, a twitku's lines are five, seven, and five characters each. A twitku looks like this: hello/twitter/verse. This site runs a weekly contest. Great project to get middle school students involved in.(Joyce) http://higheredison.typepad.com/higheredison/2008/01/hello-twitter-v.html
Twitter for writing assignment
David Parry, University of Texas says: "It was the single thing that changed the classroom dynamics more than anything I’ve ever done teaching." David had students create profiles and asked students to start sending messages each week as part of their writing assignment. His students followed him on his Twitter feed and received the short messages he sent each day, sometimes sharing a link he wanted to use in the classroom, other times something on a personal note. Students began doing the same. Although some students paid for their tweets as they set their preferences to receive them on their mobiles rather than by email, he felt the immediacy of the messages made students feel like they were part of a community. Dave Parry's colleague also feels more connected to his students who use Twitter. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2699/a-professors-tips-for-using-twitter-in-the-classroom (Janet)
Benefits in the classroom
Janet Meiners suggests many benefits of using Twitter in the classroom:
Twitter is a way to record thoughts and ideas that you search - it’s a history
Twitter connects you to a larger world outside of the classroom and even the country
Students can follow people who do what they want to do or who they admire and get a sense for their job and life
Other Twitter Applications - Twitteroo, Twiterrific, Twitter Widget, Opera Widget, Spaz, Mobio Service, Gadget - to see more, go to http://twitter.com/downloads or Twitter Fran Wiki which provides an explanation of Desktop Apps for Windows and Macs (Janet)
TwitterBuzz shows you what links Twitterers are sharing most. The default view shows the most popular links over the last day. Unfortunate that it cannot expand the tinyurls, so that will always be first and whatever the tinyurl points to is lost. (Joyce)
Shows last Tweets from Twitterers in a particular area. Add your own location by sending a Tweet with L: followed by your location. For instance: "testing Twittermap from L:Napier, New Zealand."(Joyce)
Twitter Grams! What will they think of next. I just listened to Robert Scoble (Scobleizer) on his twittergram. He used this feature which is an experimental service offered by Twitter. A TwitterGram has a title and a small MP3 file. The title explains the gram, it must be no longer than 75 characters, to allow room for the URL of the MP3, which is about 50 characters. The MP3 file may be no larger than 200K, although we won't reject MP3s that are just a bit bigger than 200K, we're not saying how much bigger. Also, you may not post more than one TwitterGram every ten minutes. This limit is not strictly enforced, but it will be, at some point, to help keep down TwitterGramSpam. :-) (Janet)
Twitter Blocks
Twitter Blocks! This is a great time-saving device. It shows you in 3-D, the people you are following, and the people they are following. It's a great way to expand your followers. You can jump in and read some of their posts; if you find they're interesting, you can follow them. (Janet)
Just can't keep up with all the twitter mashups. So, what is it? The other day, @StephAgresta said, "Twitter desperately needs page navigation on followers / following list. Also sort functionality by type (reciprocated or not) is a must." I suggested a simple mashup that implements this and started hacking on it. Basically, it's a Flash application that fetches your friends and followers from Twitter when you click the "Whack!" button, then displays them for you, letting you quickly paginate through them. By default, the list contains all your friends and followers and is sorted by last update, showing those who most recently updated first. You can sort the list alphabetically either ascending or descending by Twitter ID. You can filter the list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends.(Janet)
Just wrapped up v1.0 of a Twitter/Google maps integration. I'm calling it GeoTwitter for now. GeoTwitter extracts TwitterVision-style locations from your twitter updates and publishes your timeline as KML. It'll work for anyone who has added locations to recent twitter updates.
I have logged in and set up my account - it was easy to set up and easy to find other users. I can't really figure out how to do much more then follow someone else and update my twitter but even that was accidental. The home page could use some better explanations on how and what to use Twitter for. I did notice however that you can integrate it with Facebook which is huge, so maybe some people are using it there. I have a hard time just sending email to my family and friends every few months - I don't think I would be very good at keeping this up to date as there is not much to it other then - what are you doing? "Nathalie"
I agree with Nathalie. It is very easy to set up and use, but for me, unless I use it specifically with one of my classes, it's just another "thing" I have to keep up with. I see the potential to use this system with my ESL students (I find its educational potential very interesting), but I don't really see personal potential - facebook is enough as it is :) Justyna
I have logged in and set up my account - I haven't found any friends yet. Also, it seems to interface with mobile devices. Unfortunately, I don't have one. "Janet"
Was easy to set up an account and make first tweet. Joyce
Yes, very easy to set up account and make first tweet. But then what? Not sure how to add Twitter names of people I already know.... Pen. Ok, got it , I have to search for the names of the Twitterers I know...
Couldn't open the website in the UAE. It seems to be a blocked site. "Janet"
I set up an account and tested it at home with my wife. Seems easy enough. "Steve P"
Setting up my account was an easy process for me. i have received some advice on who to follow from Janet. Everything seems really easy. Ghassan*
How easy is it to use?
Website
You have to go to the website to post your 'tweets' which considering that you are supposed to send tweets regularly is not the handiest interface. It has some instant interfaces with several instant messaging software but these are mainly American eg AOL. Strangely doesn't offer a ready-made MSN or Skype plug-in, which would make me use it more often. Now I tend to forget posting my 'tweets'. Joyce
Pen.:I think you really need a desktop widget to use Twitter from your computer. I looked at the site 80 Links That Rock Twitter! What are you doing? and found a desktop widget for my Mac that actually works on OSX 10.3.9 -Twitterpost. So now I have a little icon on my sidebar that shows me when a new tweet has arrived, and opens as a small window so I can post my tweets easily and see all the tweets from people I am following.
I tried to download 'Spaz' - a multiplatform desktop Twitter tool but you need to first install Adobe Air and that file was corrupt from the Adobe site. So no success. Pen.
Following/Followers
Have added Janet & Nathalie as people I'm following after noticing that Nathalie was one of my followers. It was easy to add followers and Nathalies message now shows up in my list of last 'tweets'.
I allowed my name to go public and have a Mrs._Banjer following me now. I don't like the idea of someone I don't know following me. I don't see that you can allow a limited profile as you can on Facebook. Still not seeing any benefits to this software. "Janet"
I'm actually finding Mrs Banjer is a wealth of information and useful links, in omly 20 m inutes of having signed up! think this is an example of the power of Twitter. Pen
I have been following Joyce and will be adding a couple of my non-school friends who I noticed are using this tool.
Steve P, 11/01/08: I've just added a couple of kGers and hope to be able to attend the online seminar tomorrow...
I am starting to enjoy this online social network. i guess the real benefit in terms of educational use is who you follow. "Ghassan"
Mobile phone
Joyce: You can use your mobile device (Smartphone, PDA, iPhone) to send and receive tweets. In NZ the mobile network costs are still prohibitive, so I wasn't eager to try this, but decided to make the investment in my learning.
Mobile phone was easy to set up through the Add a device menu. You send a text message to a number in the UK (aargh $s from NZ) and it sends you a message back with basic instructions.
how to get help
how to silence
You are charged for messages received, again overseas charges. So I invested a little more and texted 'help' to same UK number. This time a text with more information:
how to send tweets by replying
how to invite friends (though with these charges my kiwi & dutch friends wouldn't be very happy)
how to 'follow' to receive tweets from those you are following
how to track interests
how to find out who is who
and again how to silence
Unless they have a local number for which I can use my free monthly txt bundle, I can't see myself continuing to use the mobile phone option.
Posted a Tweet from my mobile this morning as I was enjoying a sunny terrace, a milkshake & a talk with one of my friends who is an online tutor. And worked just fine: Janet: I agree with Joyce. In Canada, there are no free phone calls, either ingoing or outgoing. I spoke to four of my students about this software. None of them have heard about it. When I explained how it works, they all said they would not want to use up their mobile phone account receiving unsolicited tweets.
Steve: I tested the mobile phone charges here in Australia (on a Vodafone pre-pay account). I can send messages to Twitter UK for 25c, and receiving them was free when I set notification to 'Phone'. I don't know who's paying for me to receive these messages (or who is paying to send them...) but this would mean it's a valuable tool for reminding students about events, assignments due, giving out quick brain-teasers etc
Mobile device
not tried due to mobile network expenses
Mini Journal
Keep a mini journal of your journey
Janet
26-11:I have no experience with this software and in fact, never heard of it until now.30-11?
Nathalie
26-11:I am not sure what my thoughts are on this application - it seems a little strange to me to have people knowing what I am doing all the time. Is this the only purpose to the web app?
Joyce
26-11:Not twittering as much as I should as cumbersome in web page. 28-11 Getting more excited as I'm finding more eLearning experts twittering and have found a Firefox plug-in.
Penelope
01-12: One suggestion for twitter posts : If the post contains a tiny URL, really there should be some indication of what the page is about. Otherwise clicking on a link and finding it's not interesting or relevant is a waste of time for the reader. Example of tweet: "reading: http://tinyurl.com/2fg5bb". I clicked on this and found I had already looked at that site and had already decided it wasn't useful for me.
Janet
December 15, 2007: Penelope - if you go to this site: http://tiny.cc instead ofthe other site http://www.tinyurl.com, you can input a Keyword that allows you to input a descriptive label. When you see the URL, you will be alerted to the content of URL.
Janet
December 15, 2007: I've changed my mind about Twitter. I absolutely love it. Through Twitter, I've learned more about ed tech resources out there than I have through any other medium. On December 14th, I was proctoring an exam and happened to log on to Twitter. It's fast, it's collaborative, and so many of us answered Will Richardson's Tweet: Why do we like Twitter?Here is a summary of responses. Will Richardson describes himself as “Learner in Chief” at Connective Learning and the author of the recently released Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms published by Corwin Press. See his Weblog.
Janet
January 2, 2007: Question - Is Twitter a persistent presence tool? You can't be Twittering (or emailing or chatting, of course) and simultaneously be in deep thought and/or a flow state. (Kathy Siera "Is Twitter Too Good") Derek's Blog. What do you think?
Joyce
January 29,2008: Janet, I would say that Twitter is less of an interruption than e-mail or IM. These tools usually have an automatic notification system (a pop-up or 'ding'-sound) that literally requests your attention. Twitter does not. It also doesn't need to be running in the background as these tools usually do. And when one does use a tool like Twitbin to track tweets it can be simply turned off with one click, like closing a window. Email and IM require several actions, providing that the user knows where to find this option.
January 29, 2008: Twitter is integral to my Personal Learning Network. The constant stream of thoughts, tools & technologies from some of the most insightful edubloggers, has had an incredible impact on how in tune I am with developments & theories of educational technology.
Would you use this in an education/training setting?
I've changed my mind! I would love to develop a project between two ESL classes in the UAE which follow the same curriculum. This project would connect students in two different emirates and it would certainly help their English language and writing skills, as well as improve their computer proficiency. (Janet)
Daniel? - Trying to use is a better phrase for me here. As a teacher at a high school in Prague, my wife has been trying to get her students to use twitter for a while, to little effect. In an EFL environment, twitter could be an excellent learning tool if used effectively. There could be a virtual language classroom set up wherein every student would have to "tweet" at least two or three times a day in order to expand their English language skills and new literacies as well. If all of the students in a class were following each other, the teacher could then go through students' posts and correct the main mistakes the students were making. At the moment this is quite tough to do here as there are several students in each of her classes who do not have internet or computers at home.
For me, I am excited to work in a technology rich environment and try this kind of experiment.
I don't think I would use this in a training setting as I did not feel there was much opportunity for constructive communication. "Nathalie"
On the contrary, I think this addictive and instant kind of knowledge sharing and communication could be very useful for EFL students and for virtual research projects. Pen.
I need to further investigate using this software. It appears it interfaces with a mobile and that you can send short "Tweets" to your list of friends - a 'micro blog' if you will. I personally would find this an inconvenience. It's difficult enough having students keep their mobiles turned off during class, let alone have another social networking software to deal with besides Facebook! "Janet"
And its the core of my recent “Being There” presentations being trucked around Australia- that we make a mistake when we judge the potential of a technology by what may be inane content that people currently use it for (Do we dismiss the technology of television circuits because of the crap shows on the tube??)
cheers http://weblogged.wikispaces.com/Twitter
For my own education, perhaps to keep up with new links to resources and tools. In the Uni I work at, perhaps library staff and faculty to send out messages to students, or for students to network out of class about updates on assignment progress, tips and tricks etc., especially handy while on the bus and with no access to an internet connection. Would 25c really damage the pocket for such 'credibility'? Oh, and learning which party to go and gate-crash tonight."Steve P"
Would you use this in another setting? (eg CoP, project team,...)
Most likely not. "Janet"
Good if you could email messages with pics attached while on hols> Twitter displays message with link to pic: "Now I'm at the Taj Mahal". "Steve".
Thanks for your comment Steve and that is how people use it, only they combine platforms. Flickr to post their pictures and Twitter to let interested parties know about it. That way you're using each platform for its strengths, instead of duplicating each other's functions, and halving its success."Joyce"
Joyce:
Can definitely see this in use for a virtual project team. Having co-developed a Moodle site at a distance with a colleague, this would be great for keeping each other in the loop and tracking where we are, eg "Updated web page on...". Couldn't you do the same with chat function in Skype or MSN. Yes, so what is differentiating factor. This needs some more thought.
Am organising conference next year. This would be a great tool to capture the back channel of the conference as they did here at eLearning07.
Janet:
I am changing my mind about Twitter (7 Dec 2007) after using it on and off for about 2 weeks. I find it can become addictive and it starting to grow on me because I am learning so much by following such interesting people. I agree that the URLS should have labels so you don't click on them if you're not interested in the subject, but the references to different software that I'm learning about is fascinating. Some of you are very aware of so many different ICTs out there but I don't have anything at my college. I'm following betchaboy elemenous, willrich45 and others - even Mrs. Banjer!!...I can see that if I were working in a group and needed to keep them current on what I'm working on, Twitter might be useful - it's a great way to broadcast. Janet
Integration with other apps
Integration with Facebook
Nathalie:I have added Twitter to my facebook interface, this was an easy process and I can now access the tool from one login and can update it on the fly.
Integration with IM (Twitter4Skype,...?)
Joyce: Integrating Twitter with instant messaging platforms seems logical due to the short nature of messages sent in both. However, a bit of Google surfing appears to show that there are only a few platforms that offer Twitter integration. Most of these are American (AOL, Yahoo) and MSN has refused co-operation.
Twitter4Skype is a third party solution. It is simple to set up by adding a Skype contact and sending it your Twitter account details, username andpassword. This authentication method is of course highly unsafe! After that it works well though, you simply post your Tweets in Skype to that new contact, and it also pops up the Skype chat when those you follow in Twitter post new Tweets. Having Twitter in Skype does lower the barrier to using Twitter.
Integration with Firefox
Joyce: There are many Firefox addons for Twitter. I have started using Twitbin, which opens in a pane.This was easy to set up and has helped me keep track of the twitterverse.
Twitter Humor
Twitter alterego's Comedy via Twitter People pretending that they are famous people on Twitter. My facourite is George Bush. It's like standup.
Contributors to this page: Janet
,
daniel.lynds
,
justyna
,
Ghassan
,
sjpalnz
,
PennyROK
,
nathalie_lefaivre
and
catspyjamas
.
Page last modified on Friday 28 of March, 2008 21:51:57 EST by Janet.
The content on this page is licensed under the terms of the knowledgeGarden copyright.
Info. 
"The point of Twitter is to keep it short, to the point, and informative for yourself and other people."(BBC, 2007). The builders intention was to build an application around the question: "What are you doing?". Although some users do use it as a live stream of their day-to-day or minute-to-minute activities, most users have moved away from that.
Wiki
"Steve P"
,