Holy Twitter App, Batman!

If you're a Twitter junkie and have time on your hands for this, get ready, because there are a load of apps you can download from this wiki! I'm not sure what some of them even mean, do, or should do, but I'm just impressed with the sheer volume of different apps available for Twitter.

I fall into the category of "Like what I have, can't take on more". Perhaps some of these apps are worth downloading, and I'd love for someone to tell me what I should be using other than my Tweetdeck. So go ahead... try them, use them, love them, and I'll trust your word and try myself. But, in the meantime, I'm good. Safe. Just my Tweetdeck and me.

Can't Stop Twittering

When I first heard of Twitter I thought, like many sometimes do, 'Yep, it's just another thing to do.' Then I started to hear more and more about it, and I finally joined and starting building my network. It only took me a short while to build my network, and I'm completely addicted now. It's fast, you can leave the Tweetdeck open all day, and you get updates from your network. Since I joined, I have learned so much about so many ideas, simply based on the fact that I built my network around people who share similar professional interests as me. Having said that, this article came across Twitter this AM. It's about how this social networking tool is now being used by police to help keep the public informed. This article talks about how Twitter was used to cover a high profile murder case in Memphis.

I guess my point is this - Twitter and other social networking tools are more than just a toy, more than just a phase. They have become integrated into daily life as a viable means to stay informed. If you're not there... it's time to get on board.

Managing Twitter as a Teacher

Are you a teacher who tweets but finds it hard to keep up with it all? This article might help you by giving you some helpful tips. Hope you find it useful!

Blip.fm

Now, for teachers, you might not see the immediate value in this, but think outside the box. Blip.fm is an online source where you can become your own DJ, and if you are linked into Twitter, your Blips are immediately posted for your followers. The students love this site for some obvious reasons, but if you're a teacher, how can this benefit you? Well, what if you have a blog/wiki or some other forum, and you want to share a song(s) that is relative to a lesson you've created. You can embed the Blip into the forum, and the students can access the song anywhere they can access the Internet.

One of my students asked if we can try to set up an online radio station for WHS... hmmm, if we're worried about what is school appropriate, this seems like a great online forum that our students can access where we ALL have access to what content is good. We're working on it. Keep you posted.

Are you a Twit?

I'm back at the Chritsa McAuliffe Technology Conference in Nashua, NH. One of the 1st sessions I attended was David Warlick's 'The Art & Technique of Wikis', and he couldn't stop talking about Twitter.

If you use Twitter, you're a Twit (this, I take some issue with), and if you're twittering (what you're doing when you're on Twitter), then you're Tweeting. It's a concept much like blogging, but you're limited to 140 characters; thus, it has been dubbed micro-blogging. Jeff Whipple , my new techno pal, says it has taken over his blogging. He now tweets more than he blogs; although I believe he does a nice job maintaing his blog. Twitter operates much like a chat room would, which may make some of you raise your eyebrows, but have faith. It seems to be a marvelous way to reach a global audience, and it works in real time. As David was teaching us about wikis, he had his Twitter account open, and he would ask questions to his networked group of professional & personal friends who were Tweeting, getting near immediate responses to the questions he was asking.

In his next session, 'Cultivating a Personal Learning Network', he addressed Twitter again as a means to grow as an educator, to literally build your personal and professional network to learn and, well, yes, grow. You can follow people, and then follow people that other people follow to build your network. If I were to try this, I'd follow David & Jeff, since I now know them to be professionals with whom I want to stay in contact. David made the good point that since you're limited to the number of characters you can enter per post, you must be economical with your words; thus, certain 'big' terms are probably worth checking out, if many people are using this term/idea. People send out new sites or ideas they've discovered or are interested in to anyone who is Tweeting at the time, and presto, you can have a new idea to check out and try.

There is also a feature that allows you to visualize data in various forms, and as David pointed out in his Keynote address on Tuesday morning, data visualization is becoming a medium. Tweeting may sound time consuming, or just another thing to do, but if you're already online with some kind of social networking tool, this may be the latest and greatest way to stay in touch & learn. Give it a try!