Why Twitter?

Last week Warren Munick sent me this link and asked me if he thought CMC faculty would use this "micro-blogging" tool called Twitter:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2785/will-new-messaging-service-catch-on-with-professors

In the Chronicle feature, a faculty used it to exchange quick messages with students who voluntarily opted to use it. You'll see that many faculty responded to the video presentation.

I've come to the conclusion that once we hear about excitement over a new technology, we then get down to asking how it serves the learning.

I would want to know how many students had it and how they saw it helping their learning needs.

I did spend some time with Twitter. I went to Twitter.com and set up an account. I found out I send out quick posts of 140 characters or less (there's a counter at the message window) and share the post via phone, instant messenger, or web.

I decided I would use it with an instant messenger on my desktop, though I can just go to the Twitter website and login to my account there as well. If I am away from the computer, I can turn on my phone, but will get charged text-message rates according to my cell contract.

I might use it for quick messages from learners at critical times with projects, but don't think I'd have it on all the time. As an English faculty, I have long promoted National Poetry Month with public readings. I thought--well, Twitter could be used for poetic exchanges (Many were ahead of me, I soon found out...). So I did a search for other Twitter users with the term poetry, found a bunch and invited a bunch.

http://twitter.com/140poems/with_friends

What I'm learning about the exploding technology services is that some seem to be information oriented, while others are definitely more social-connection oriented.

Twitter is the second.

So welcome to April--National Poetry month. There are many venues for celebrating it--but if you want to share it by writing or quoting up to 140 characters of poetry, join Twitter and "follow" me (140poems).

If you are using Twitter or have ideas about how it might be used, please let us hear about them in the comments!