Tales from the Twitterverse – May 2012
Having been immensely resistant to Twitter, believing it to be populated with angsty teenagers and people informing the world of their every banal move, I have been forced to do a complete u-turn (I would be hopeless as a Tory Minister). I started using Twitter seriously a couple of months ago and I am not ashamed to say I was completely wrong and it is a brilliant tool. Because you can control your settings and be as choosy as you like with who you follow, it is really easy to find people who have the same interests or background as you. So, if you are an angsty teenager and just want to tweet about how unfair your life is, you can do so with other angsty teenagers and everyone is happy, or angsty in the case of teenagers.
As a Learning Technologist, I have linked to others who also have a background in education and technology, but much more than that, through following people, I have picked up some fantastic followers with very diverse backgrounds, such as business, healthcare and politics. This is fantastic and although I don’t follow hundreds of people and I don’t have a huge following myself, both are growing and I can honestly say I have learned so much in a very short time from these people. If used well, Twitter is a wonderful tool for developing a really effective Community of Practice. The beauty of it is, you can connect with people all over the world, which is an opportunity to widen your knowledge base even more.
Examples of recent tweets which contain links to some great information and resources:
RSC Wales @rscwales - Using Google Docs spreadsheets to create a simple (and free) electronic voting system. http://paper.li/RSCSouthWest/rsc-south-west-list
Richard Byrne @rmbyrne - BioDigital Human. A free online interactive medical model which goes into each human anatomical system. Ideal for revision/re-capping. https://www.biodigitalhuman.com/
Tom Kuhlmann @tomkuhlmann - specialises in all things e-learning and has an excellent blog which gives hints and tips on creating good quality e-learning resources. http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/how-to-be-successful-at-rapid-e-learning/
My colleague, flea palmer @fleapalmer has discovered this excellent resource which I shall certainly be reading.
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
There are many, many more out there, all with some great stuff which they generously share regularly.
I am a true convert to Twitter and find it an essential part of my everday working life.
If you haven’t done so already, have a look for yourself. http://twitter.com
Joan Gavin @joanieg1205