Sunday 29 March 2009

To Twitter or not to Tweet

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? I have joined Twitter and I find it really fantastic.

I joined Twitter a few months ago using the name "ballyvally". It seemed strange at first. You have no friends (or followers) and you aren't following anyone. Who do you send your tweets to?

The first thing to do is to follow people who have the same interests as yourself (you can always follow me!). If you go to to this site, you can type in the area you are interested in. From the list of Tweeters, select one and read some of their entries. If they seem interesting, you can follow them. Repeat the process.

The idea is to state what you are doing using 140 characters (letters, spaces, etc). Initially you might be thinking, who wants to know what I'm doing. Who wants to know that I have just cut the grass or am just about to take a walk along the river? But if I was attending an ICT conference somewhere in Europe, there will be numerous people who would be interested in the details of the conference, step-by-step as it is reported live. I could be reading a really interesting article from a particular website and be able to share it with my followers - did you know, for example, that pupils in the UK are to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools. This article is one of the links that was passed on to me through Twitter!

When you log into your Twitter account, you will see a list of the most recent tweets from the people you are following. I am following some great people - olliebray, mwclarkson, russeltarr, John_Howarth, to mention but a few. Every so often, I will also check who they are following, read some of the posts and again, if I like what they are saying or if they point to useful websites, I will follow them too.

The amount of really useful information I have obtained from the people I am following has been unbelievable. Here are Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter!

Some Tips for Twitter: a great beginner's guide for new users
Click here for 100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter.

Join Twitter now!

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