http://twitter.com

Using Twitter takes time, patience and a sense of innovation. Most students will probably not get Twitter and you can’t force them to use it, unless it is obviously part of the object of study. However, more and more, students will start to be familiar with it and see its value – short, targetted communication which might appear like a million voices all calling out at once, but which actually can be filtered down to just the few worth listening to.

The basics

Twitter is very short messaging, often called micro-blogging though that term is probably misleading now. Twitter describes itself as “a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations. At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called Tweets. Each Tweet is 140 characters in length, but don’t let the small size fool you—you can share a lot with a little space. Connected to each Tweet is a rich details pane that provides additional information, deeper context and embedded media. You can tell your story within your Tweet, or you can think of a Tweet as the headline, and use the details pane to tell the rest with photos, videos and other media content.”

Twitter works only if you have people to follow, and people following you. Otherwise its just a stream of stuff from millions of users. Pay attention to, and communicate with, people you actually want to connect with.

Twitter is becoming a default web app, like Facebook and Google. It’s not necessarily because it is brilliant or everyone has to have it, but because it has gained mindshare and is, pretty much, a unique application. Network effects kick in: the more people who join, the more exponentially who are likely to join.

Twitter might be full of ranting celebrities, and random nonsense, but it is often also used for very effective scholarly communication. Two key features matter: the hashtag (such as #altc, a tag I use for tweets relating to the ALTC), which allows computers and humans to aggregate related posts, only with that tag; and the use of Twitter to propagate links to websites. Various link shortening applications, such as bit.ly, mean you can pack long links into short tweets and then track who is linking through to the website. Twitter is often metadata and pointers, not information itself.

Note: Twitter is best used via a downloadable client (though many now also have webbased versions), though the new improved interface at twitter.com is more usable than its earlier versions. Most people find it hard to see the benefit of twitter without the organising tools of Tweetdeck, Seesmic and similar clients.

Pedagogic Challenge

Consider the way Dr Tama Leaver, Curtin University, uses Twitter…

Alternatives

Twitter is unique.

Read…

A useful guide to teaching with Twitter is presented at the Web 2.0 Teaching blog.

Some Twitter tools, from PCWorld Magazine

Grosseck, G. and Holotescu, C. 2008. Can we use Twitter for Educational Activities? 4th International Scientific Conference eLSE eLearning and Software for
Education, Bucharest, April 17-18, 2008.

Walsh, K. 2009. 6 Examples of Using Twitter in the Classroom. EmergingEdTech blog.

Zhao, D. and Rossen, M. 2009. How and why people Twitter: the role that micro-blogging plays in informal communication at work. GROUP ’09 Proceedings of the ACM 2009 international conference on Supporting group work.