I have recently joined Twitter and these are my experiences and thoughts about it so far.Sunday: Discovered the benefit of having a mentor to introduce me to people on Twitter. My mentor was Sue Waters, who introduced me to the community of educators she talks to. I would find Twitter very frustrating if I did not have that instant access to a group.
Monday: Felt too uncomfortable to say anything because I didn't have anything to say, didn't know anyone, and did not want to make a mistake and say something out of turn.
Tuesday: Responded to a 'tweet' by Nancy White about Yuuguu, which is a screen-share software. Nancy is someone I really admire so I was thrilled that she was able to take five minutes to orientate me to Yuuguu. .. and I got to see her desktop! It is absolutely mind-blowing to me that I was able to control the desktop of person living in Seattle whilst I was in New Zealand. The potential for me as a teacher is that I will be able to guide a distance student in the use of an Internet tool in a far more hands-on way compared to giving written or telephone instructions at a distance. Following Nancy's 'looking over our shoulders' model of teaching and learning.
Met Andy Roberts who is taking the 31 Day Better Blog Challenge with me.
Wednesday: Found on someone's Mugshot profile.
Twitter: And *why* do I care what you're doing?
Thursday: Have started disseminating information about blog postings which seems to be a 'justified' way of using Twitter. I am reluctant to use it for social/personal conversations because I do not want to bombard everyone with irrelevant material. News of the new blog challenge seems to be spreading rapidly. I have had conversations about it with several other people.
Loved receiving up to date reminders about online seminars and meetings that were being held. It certainly encouraged me to join one session.
Friday: My stats counter shows my page loads have increased from 50 page loads on Monday to 194 today. I do not know how much can be attributed to my use of Twitter, but I am sure
it can only help.
My overall impression of Twitter: the jury is still out on this one. But I think it has potential, and I certainly would like to talk to my third year midwifery students who are out on placements around the country about it.
What is your experience of Twitter? Do you have any helpful hints about how to maximize its effectiveness?
Image: 'Open up and say AHHHH33333 (Day 58- 365 days)' Michelle Brea
www.flickr.com/photos/90667736@N00/446084326
12 comments:
You should chat to Simon Brown (skystrustjoy on twitter) about using it with students as I know he started using it with his Stone mason students who are spread out across Queensland.
Will do - thanks for that.
when you get back, I'm booking you in for running a workshop with staff on Twitter and Yuuguu.
LOL, now you are in trouble, Sarah!
I find it cool that you met another of my online (and now F2F) friends, Andy Roberts. Small world.
I think the observation that tapping into someone else's community/network is a great way in.
Put me down for that workshop ;-)
I've had a look at twitter. It hasn't grabbed me so far, but I'm definately open to exploring it further.
Yuuguu sounds like it could be incredibly valuable for online teaching.
If the workshop doesn't end up happening, perhaps we could organise something a bit less formal?
if it doesn't end up happening! whats that? do i have a reputation of not getting things done that you guys aren't telling me about? or are we thinking sarah will get the heeby jeebies? informal is exactly what i had in mind as always though.. just a coalition of the willing as usual.
Happy to help out Leigh, willing or otherwise!!! I am not a great expert as you can see, but I can give a perspective from someone just getting used to twitter.
ok. how about you set a time and place, prepare a handout and post it to your blog. I'll help get people there...
Here are a couple of articles about the use of twitter in an education setting:
Twitter for Academia by academichack:
http://tinyurl.com/25u2cx
Alan Lew. Twitter Tweets for Higher Education. http://tinyurl.com/yvpwn6
guess what! I'm in Melbourne for the next two weeks. This workshop might not happen after all! Unless, that is, Sarah organises it ;) Sarah, you may have noticed on the Networked Learning email forum that others (ncluding Dave) have been organising workshops for their colleagues and opening it up to anyone to come along. This is great to see - exactly what EDC has been trying to encourage for about 2 years now....
I think the informal workshops idea is fantastic. I would like to include students as well. As for Twitter,will look to do something in March-am pretty tied up in Feburary with one thing and another.
More about twitter: http://tinyurl.com/2hdcu9
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