Twitter-Who?
Twitter is a tool I’m now using a lot myself that is being increasingly referred to in innovation circles, including learning circles.
It’s what we call a microblog. Basically, it allows you to text or complete online a 140 character blog which your friends then receive in their browser, email or website.
Why on earth would you want that? Well, firstly, it provides a more appropriate service than blogging. For example, if I go to Whitby and nothing much happens, it would be a lot of effort and boredom to write a blog about it. However, for friends in Whitby or people who might want to say: “Oh, while you’re there go and see…” it interesting to know. Now I can Twitter (or Tweet as it’s called “Going to Whitby today, will be there at 12) and friends could tweet back with their advice.
So how does this work in learning? Well, Tweets can be used to inform. For example, I may say : “Interesting article about teaching here (http://link.com) as I’m rerading it, and friends can then go there. Or, it can be used as a reflective tool and imported into a google-folio or any other portfolio that accepts RSS feeds. So I could tweet “Really good session today”. Tweets can also be tagged, to allow you to group things. So, I could tweet “Teaching conference is great #teachconf”. As long as everyone at the conference used the same tag, you could then search out #teachconf as a way of getting feedback and evaluation.
The problem with Tweets is they also have a social side. Now, for me, this isn’t a problem because I find it interesting if you say: “Am on the train to Doncaster” however you may not care. In that case, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the “pointless” tweets, especially when you get started.
To this end, I’ve set up a Twitter account for Adult Community Learning providers in Yorkshire & Humber. It will only contain tweets related directly to the sharing of resources for work. You can find it here (www.twitter.com/rscyhacl). If you’re interested in social tweeting, look through the friends list, and you’ll find plenty.
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