This is a great article and it opened my eyes to the possibilities Twitter offers. I really hadn’t imagined that there would be so many ideas.
I really liked the idea of using the Public Timeline for real input. The only problem I see is that many schools block sites with "questionable" content and I wonder how long Twitter would last.
One reason I felt Twitter was limited is that here in Mexico it is very difficult and expensive to get Internet on cellphones. Most students don’t have "plans", they just buy airtime and that doesn’t include Internet. I’m sure if they could get Twitter on their cellphones, there would be a lot more possibilities. Maybe it’ll get here in the future. It just depends what our telephone monopoly decides.
Without access from their cellphones, I think the information overload when they checked from a computer (probably once a day) would limit a lot of the spontaneous communication Twitter offers.
JoAnn, if you go to ‘Classroom ideas’ under primer, you’ll find the result of the project Jennifer mentions. I was pretty impressed by it! I started writing poems (limericks) as well. This is quite a challenge, and there are so few letters available, that someone else will have to finish it,either on their own or as another twitter.
I must start by saying I don’t have a class. I teach teachers how to use the Internet…so I’m looking for new ideas for new courses.
I liked the result of the project. It’s very similar to an app on facebook: Just three words. I’ve been playing around with it and some of the stories are great. In that app you can only add 3 words at a time. You never know where the story will go.
I’m going to think about twitter this weekend and see what other uses I can find.
thanks for the link to the article. There are a lot of useful ideas on there! I sent a tweet @smielt, and I think that "follow a professional" would be an interesting project for students. They could find and follow journalists, celebrities, authors, or professors in the content areas that they are interested in. From my experiences with Twitter, seeing what people are doing and reading daily is really interesting. In fact, the Twitter messages that are most interesting for me are probably those sharing USEFUL links! So, if students could get access to that kind of information, and it may really catch their interest!
If you type #smielt08, you post to a channel which follows all posts tagged this way. You can access them onsite at Twemes, or add its RSS to your feedreader.
I’m quite new at twitter so perhaps everybody already knows about tweetscan. I’ve just found it and installed the plugin. I think it might be very useful.
I am enjoying following my "followed" on Twitter. Probably too much. I have noticed that many people link thir latest blog posts or other useful information. I tend to look at what is posted and soon 3 hours pass by.
As I began following people, I felt the seem exhilaration about being followed as I did when I invited "friends" on Myspace. Weird. Sometimes Twitter feels too up-close-and-personal. I don’t really know the people who follow me, so therefore do not want to post the fact that I am eating or going to bed. On the other hand, I would feel comfortable asking questions among my newfound "teachers." If only more of them would follow me!
How do I get more people whose voices matter to me to follow me when I am fairly certain that my voice wouldn’t likely matter to them?
Actually, when I sent the twitter message using @smielt08, I wondered how everyone would be able to follow the messages, and to have a discussion on Twitter. Now that I know about the channel and use of #, it makes more sense! I have noticed that there are only 3 messages in the RSS feed, even though Gabriela and I have been trying to send messages. Well, let’s keep trying ;)
1. Is the main purpose of Twitter/Jaiku/Pownce socializing/connecting, or can these be in any way used for language learning with students? Somebody mentioned that it’s good for learning present continuous (What are you doing?), anything else?
2. How can we benefit from being/learning on Twitter/J/P if these tools allow only 140 characters? Isn’t this too limiting? (too many messages/too fast?)
3. I would love if somebody could prepare sort of a chart comparing Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce. Advantages? Disadvantages?
I like the idea of following people and being followed. However, I only follow about 20 people, so it’s easy to see what they are doing on a regular basis. My friend has 60 people that she follows which seems to be a bit of a nonsense since with that big of a crowd she hardly has time to read the twits. How many do you follow then?
It’s a great idea for us to follow other teachers (great for professional development), but who would your students follow? Why?
Thanks for sharing the link Sarah it´s very interesting.
I also wanted to share with you another option you have with Twitter. This is Tweet Scan and it is a real-time search engine for Twitter posts. This is great for professional development for example if there is an online conference going on you can follow all the Twitter posts.
I want to share an example of how one teacher uses Twitter in his classroom.
What do you think? Which things would you add or change?
This is a great article and it opened my eyes to the possibilities Twitter offers. I really hadn’t imagined that there would be so many ideas.
I really liked the idea of using the Public Timeline for real input. The only problem I see is that many schools block sites with "questionable" content and I wonder how long Twitter would last.
One reason I felt Twitter was limited is that here in Mexico it is very difficult and expensive to get Internet on cellphones. Most students don’t have "plans", they just buy airtime and that doesn’t include Internet. I’m sure if they could get Twitter on their cellphones, there would be a lot more possibilities. Maybe it’ll get here in the future. It just depends what our telephone monopoly decides.
Without access from their cellphones, I think the information overload when they checked from a computer (probably once a day) would limit a lot of the spontaneous communication Twitter offers.
JoAnn Miller
Mexico City
Every tool has it´s advantages and disadvantages and it´s up to us teachers to adapt them to our needs.
Here in Argentina only in some schools students have cellphones and Internet connection at home.
How are you planning to use the Public Timeline with your students?
I´m glad you liked the article.
Jennifer
JoAnn, if you go to ‘Classroom ideas’ under primer, you’ll find the result of the project Jennifer mentions. I was pretty impressed by it! I started writing poems (limericks) as well. This is quite a challenge, and there are so few letters available, that someone else will have to finish it,either on their own or as another twitter.
Try it out :-)
Illya (smielt team)
I must start by saying I don’t have a class. I teach teachers how to use the Internet…so I’m looking for new ideas for new courses.
I liked the result of the project. It’s very similar to an app on facebook: Just three words. I’ve been playing around with it and some of the stories are great. In that app you can only add 3 words at a time. You never know where the story will go.
I’m going to think about twitter this weekend and see what other uses I can find.
Thanks for all the help.
JoAnn Miller
Mexico City
Hi Jen,
thanks for the link to the article. There are a lot of useful ideas on there! I sent a tweet @smielt, and I think that "follow a professional" would be an interesting project for students. They could find and follow journalists, celebrities, authors, or professors in the content areas that they are interested in. From my experiences with Twitter, seeing what people are doing and reading daily is really interesting. In fact, the Twitter messages that are most interesting for me are probably those sharing USEFUL links! So, if students could get access to that kind of information, and it may really catch their interest!
MaryH
If you type #smielt08, you post to a channel which follows all posts tagged this way. You can access them onsite at Twemes, or add its RSS to your feedreader.
bee, this is great. I explored different tags. it was incredible to see people writing in different languages using the same tag!
the thing is… my tweet doesn’t appear in Tweemes.
I’m quite new at twitter so perhaps everybody already knows about tweetscan. I’ve just found it and installed the plugin. I think it might be very useful.
I am enjoying following my "followed" on Twitter. Probably too much. I have noticed that many people link thir latest blog posts or other useful information. I tend to look at what is posted and soon 3 hours pass by.
As I began following people, I felt the seem exhilaration about being followed as I did when I invited "friends" on Myspace. Weird. Sometimes Twitter feels too up-close-and-personal. I don’t really know the people who follow me, so therefore do not want to post the fact that I am eating or going to bed. On the other hand, I would feel comfortable asking questions among my newfound "teachers." If only more of them would follow me!
How do I get more people whose voices matter to me to follow me when I am fairly certain that my voice wouldn’t likely matter to them?
Sarah Braxton
Hi Bee,
That is great information — #smielt08
Actually, when I sent the twitter message using @smielt08, I wondered how everyone would be able to follow the messages, and to have a discussion on Twitter. Now that I know about the channel and use of #, it makes more sense! I have noticed that there are only 3 messages in the RSS feed, even though Gabriela and I have been trying to send messages. Well, let’s keep trying ;)
I wonder whether your not seeing them has anything to do with your account settings or preferences. My updates are not protected.
Yes, if your updates are protected they don’t appear
Thanks for the tip. I’m now tweeting #smielt08 :-)
Illya (smielt team)
Here is some food for thought on microblogging:
1. Is the main purpose of Twitter/Jaiku/Pownce socializing/connecting, or can these be in any way used for language learning with students? Somebody mentioned that it’s good for learning present continuous (What are you doing?), anything else?
2. How can we benefit from being/learning on Twitter/J/P if these tools allow only 140 characters? Isn’t this too limiting? (too many messages/too fast?)
3. I would love if somebody could prepare sort of a chart comparing Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce. Advantages? Disadvantages?
I like the idea of following people and being followed. However, I only follow about 20 people, so it’s easy to see what they are doing on a regular basis. My friend has 60 people that she follows which seems to be a bit of a nonsense since with that big of a crowd she hardly has time to read the twits. How many do you follow then?
It’s a great idea for us to follow other teachers (great for professional development), but who would your students follow? Why?
I just joined what seems to be an interesting group on Twitter - a bookgroup. See this wiki for details: http://twitterbookgroup.wikispaces.com/
Sarah Braxton
Thanks for sharing the link Sarah it´s very interesting.
I also wanted to share with you another option you have with Twitter. This is Tweet Scan and it is a real-time search engine for Twitter posts. This is great for professional development for example if there is an online conference going on you can follow all the Twitter posts.
I wanted to share Terraminds. It´s a search application for Twitter messages and users.