1. My Quest to Find theMagic Leads to Twitterby Helen CrumpMA Technology , Learning,Innovation & ChangeDecember 2010

2. the times they are a changin the way people obtain and exchange information is becoming moredigital social mobile 3. web 2.0: connected digital nativesinstant messaging textingphotos downloads blogs & microvideos social networks blogs 4. definitionssocial networkis a web-basedservice that provides micro blogways for users to short posts to a personalinteract to build blog [web diary],communities of especially aboutpeople who havehappenings of thecommon interests moment 5. suddenly everyones talkingabout Twitter! part microblogging tool part social networking tool freely accessible on the Web andmobile devices currently has 175 million users 360,000 sign ups per day 16% of new users join via mobile device 6. appeals to our inherently inquisitive human natureallows you to answer the question"What are you doing?" by sending short text messages140 characters in length called "tweets" to your friends, or "followers."it is proving to be an ideal platform forrapid, innovative and consumablecommunication 7. can appear frivolous to peoplewho have never tried it social nature and mobility has ledTwitter to become very popular quitequickly time-poor or remote users haveopportunity for informal conversationwith those outside their daily activities great tool for monitoring and keeping apulse on topics and peopleis Twitter a distractionconversation: virtual water-cooler from real work ? 8. links to communities of practice 9. 0penness, simplicity and flexibility short format of the tweet is defining characteristic opens up your circle of contacts to an ever-growing community of like-minded people less gated method of communication: you canfollow and share information with people thatyou wouldnt normally exchange email or IMmessages with allows informal collaboration and quickinformation sharing 10. discover whats new in yourworld http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NshQFrpC2O4&feature= player_embedded# 11. can enhance practice in Higher EducationCentre for Learning& Performance TechnologiesTop 100 Tools for Learning 2010 number 1 Twitter http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100-2010.html 12. can be beneficial to workingpracticeTwitter helps develop communityof practice and professional identityresearch: keep in touch with research network engage in debate link to blog posts or journal articlesyoure reading amplify conference and eventhappenings to non-attending colleagues 13. can be beneficial to teaching andlearningout-of-class: promotes discussion beyond classroom walls can pose questions or answer queries about assignments creates community of support beyond physical classroom facilitates collaborative group work update students about lecture cancellations and venue changesin-class: in large lecture hall can engage all students in discussions back-channel real time commenting, recording, divergent point of view 14. the Twitter experiment at UTDallashttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8 15. Community of Inquiry:Twitter pedagogy teacher presence: engagementthrough Twitter helps attend toinstructional management issuesand students knowledge building cognitive presence: students ableto construct meaning throughsustained interaction with tutorand professional practitioners social presence: It really mademe feel like we knew each othermore and were actually in class Dunlap, J.C., and Lowenthal, P.R. (2009).Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter totogether.Enhance Social Presence. Journal of InformationSystems Education, 20 (2). 16. the college: considerations before adopting Twitterbenefits: free to set up an account helps facilitate blended learning offer facilitates social learning compliments existing channels of communicationto discuss: open communication tool - need to aware of reputation management issues IP - ownership of content needs to be clarified familiarisation phase - for both organisation andindividual (cost)other: campus-wide wi-fi would be advantageous 17. the lecturer: considerations before implementing Twitterequitability: can all students access mobile phone/ laptop [alternative?]course management: compulsory or optional will Twitter participation be assessed or not is there mobile phone/ wi-fi signal in classroom [if needed] plan how to track tweets - set up course hash tagprofessional: consider how much personal information youwant to disclose [maybe 2 accounts] 18. students: considerations before you start to Tweet for classbenefits: increases social interaction with peers provides learning support helps facilitate collaborationcautions: be aware content is moderated by lecturer in-class tweets are labelled "anonymous" in theview that students see but student can still beidentified by lecturer open communication tool - do not compromisefledgling professional identity 19. we can work it out as the ranks of educators on Twittergrow, we hear more and more about theimportance of their Personal LearningNetwork [PLN] so why shouldnt ourstudents have PLNs of their own? in order to motivate and relate to theirstudents, lecturers need to be able tospeak the same language and inhabit thesame communities, both real and virtual;engage with technology and truly enhanceteaching and learning 20. The Twitter Song 21. thank you:happy tweeting ***you can follow me on Twitter@crumphelen