Twitter

Goals

1. Understand the term micro-blog.
2. Learn how to use Twitter, a common micro-blogging application.
3. Complete Assignments 1-2 (below).

Learning Outcomes

1. Describe how a micro-blog could be used in an instructional setting.
2. Provide critical feedback addressing potentials and/or limitations to instructional uses of micro-blogs.

Micro-Blogs

In short, so to speak, Twitter (see Wikipedia entry here) is a micro-blog. Micro-blogging means posting brief text updates. Twitter is a free web-based service that allows you to post “tweets” of 140 or fewer characters. Subscribers have a page from which they can access their own tweets and the others to which they subscribe. Subscribers also have the option of receiving their tweets on their mobile devices (messaging service fees, if applicable, will be charged).

Here are some examples of how the educational community is using Twitter:

• Why and How I Use Twitter (Dr. Christopher Rice here at UK)
• Building and Using Your Personal Information Network (Dr. Rice, Part II)
• Teaching with Twitter (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Twitter Tweets for Higher Education
• Teaching Journalism Students to Twitter: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
• Thinkery: Teaching with Twitter
• Why We Use Twitter (University of Maryland and NEC)

Assignment #1 – Create and post to your own Twitter account

(Estimated time to complete: approximately 30 minutes)

1. First go to http://twitter.com/.
2. Click on the green button that says: Join the Conversation! 
3. Enter the requested information (password needs to be at least 6 characters). Take a moment to email yourself the username and password or do something else to help you remember them.
4. Once you are on your Twitter homepage, bookmark it. Check out the Settings to see what your options are for privacy and preferences.
5. Now you need to add friends. First, add the Blue 2.0 tweet. Go to https://twitter.com/connectedcampus and click on the word Follow under the picture/icon. Now go back to your own Twitter home page. Next time Blue 2.0 tweets, you’ll see the its “feed” show up with your own messages.
6. Want to add others? Find another Blue 2.0 user to Twitter with, and follow each other. Here are some others you might enjoy adding:
   • Chris Penny, Ed Tech Prof and Apple Distinguished Educator http://twitter.com/chrispenny
   • Open Culture, cultural and educational media on the web
     http://twitter.com/openculture
   • Intellagirl, educational tech geek and Second Life enthusiast http://twitter.com/Intellagirl
   • Stevie Rocco, Instructional Design, Penn State http://twitter.com/stevier
   • Rupp Arena http://twitter.com/Rupp_Arena
   • Wil Wheaton, actor (yes, from Stand By Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation) and technology geek and Twitter star http://twitter.com/wilw
   • Search in Twitter for other interesting feeds. Type university in the search line to see what universities are on Twitter and how many people are following them. Type in class or to find how some instructors and students are using Twitter.

Assignment #2 - Reflections (Applications to Instructional Settings)

(Estimated time tocomplete: approximately 30 minutes)

1. In the blog you have created for Blue 2.0 (or in your wiki, notes or other reflections tool), describe how a micro-blog could be used in one or more of your courses by either (or both) the instructor and/or students.
2. Add to your blog (or wiki, notes or other reflections tool) entry what type of problems may be raised by using a micro-blog. If you are working through Blue 2.0 in a group, provided critical feedback to one or more other participants on their blogs (or wikis, notes or other reflections tool) offering a suggestion or asking a question about how micro-blogging might be useful to them, or how it may raise potential problems.