Nice article on some of the academic uses of Twitter which I found out about after reading a blog entry on Twitter from Lindsay Jordan.
The article by Dave Parry says:
I thought I would explain how I use it, specifically for academic related uses, and teaching.
Includes a really interesting observation on the way that learners used Twitter for classroom chatter.
The first thing I noticed when the class started using Twitter was how conversations continued inside and outside of class. Most of these conversations were not directly related to class material, but many were tangentially related. Because the students had the shared classroom experience when something came up outside of class that reminded them of material from class time it often got twittered. This served as a reinforcement/connection between the material and the “real world.”
The whole article is well worth reading if you are wondering about the academic benefits of Twitter.
In case you are still wondering what Twitter is…
One thing about Twitter is that you need to “do it” to really understand it.
Many of these ideas would also work for Jaiku (and in some cases with the threaded commenting could work better).
The results are in for this year’s Edublog awards (”Eddies” for short), an online event that showcases the best use of blogs, podcasting and other social software in education.
A full list of winners and nominations can be found at edublogawards.com.
Well 17th December 1997 saw the first use of the term, weblog, from which blog, blogging and blogosphere all arise from. The BBC reports on the history of the blog:
The word was created by Jorn Barger to describe what he was doing with his pioneering Robot Wisdom web page.
The word was an abbreviation for the “logging” of interesting “web” sites that Mr Barger featured on his regularly updated journal.
A decade on and blog-watching firm Technorati reports it is tracking more than 70 million web logs.
So this is one of these 70 million and here’s to the next ten years.
Those of you who follow me online (or just plain bump into me online) or have read this
blog before will know that I am a fan of micro-blogging and specifically Jaiku.
So I read with interest today that Google has bought out Jaiku.
Exciting news: Google has bought Jaiku today. What does that mean? First and foremost, we’re of course continuing to support our existing users. So fear not: your Jaiku phone, the Web site, IM, SMS, and API will continue to work normally.
Interesting that Google went for Jaiku and not Twitter. Twitter has certainly had a lot more press than Jaiku, maybe it was a price thing, maybe it wasn’t.
What is also interesting is that Google already own a similar service, Dodgeball!
I do feel that micro-blogging has real educational potential, if not for learning, certainly for administration or even marketing.
Alas one of the side effects of this purchase is that…
That said, new user sign-ups have been limited for the time being.
But…
Existing users will still be able to invite their friends
So if you know me and have been thinking about joining Jaiku, fear not, want an invite let me know.
Earlier, back in July, I blogged about Web Worker Daily which had a nice article on how Facebook could be used to support your work. Well they’ve just published another excellent article on how you can use Twitter in the workplace.
For those of you who still wonder whether it’s anything more than inane stream-of-consciousness, consider these ways in which Twitter can help you professionally.
Though I do have a Twitter account, I much prefer using Jaiku which is a similar micro-blogging site, and all eight ways can also be used with Jaiku. Jaiku also allows you to add RSS feeds which makes it even more useful and you can create channels which will make it very easy to add micro-blogging to an event or a conference.
I can be found on both Jaiku and Twitter, why not give it a try.
These videos were created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. My own background is in teaching English, so some of the sites are specific to ELT and are grouped separately. The rest are for all teachers and there is also a section for those interested in more difficult multimedia products like Flash and Director.
The cover how to use iTunes, PowerPoint tips, creating blogs and many other things.
He has used Camtasia to produce the video guides. Personally I am a fan of Captivate which does a similar job, for those looking for a free tool, Wink is certainly one option which does work quite well.
I was caught on camera, and yes I was blogging (and eating at the same time).
I did also talk to the person sitting next to me…
One thing that I have found blogging about stuff at ALT-C is how it can be used to create and stimulate verbal communication. I doubt I would have spoken to Steve Wheeler if he hadn’t blogged about a session we both attended and on his blog he mentioned my blog.
Other delegates have come up to me and mentiond my blog. Others have mentioned the photographs I have uploaded to Flickr.
Yes everyone focusing on their computers can be seen to be rude (here I am typing this during a session), but I know I have talked and discussed more during this conference as a result of blogging then I have at previous ALT conferences.
I reflected during the refreshment break this morning that though there were some people using laptops, many, many more were talking.
Personally I think blogging has improved the verbal discussion not replaced it.
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Posted by James Clay
