Twitter

On Monday at the school ICT Futures Committee meeting I am going to ask the executive to lift the ban on Twitter at school. For some unexplained reason this year Twitter has been blocked on all computers at school. I do presume that it is primarily because of the lap top program we now operate. This is unfortunate for both students and teachers but I will get to that later.
So what is Twitter? Basically it is a 140 character micro blog. What particularly appeals to me about twitter is that there is no room for waffle. You can't mess around with what you need to say when you only have 140 characters to say it. Launched in 2006 and according to Wikipedia (they're always right!) Twitter now has over 200 million users and 65 million 'tweets' a day are sent.
Why do I like Twitter? Sure I follow rugby, basketball and general sports news but it is professionally that I find Twitter invaluable. I follow 501 people and it is my Personal Learning Network that is a huge benefit to me professionally. Through this PLN I gather information that assists me in the classroom and also in my role as Primary Learning Technologies leader. This may seem a little like spam email but as I have mentioned before you don't have to spend long reading 140 characters. Quite often with a tweet there is a link that if you have liked what you have read you can read on.
How do I use it with my students? Instead of emailing students I will often post a message to twitter for them to follow. In 2008 and 2009 the school was closed for a period of time due to an outbreak of an illness. During this time I communicated with students via phone, email and online chats. If the school ever has to close again I will definitely be using Twitter to communicate. With Twitter students and myself do not always have to be online at the same time like we do in a chat. I will enter a hashtag with something like #6S2011 and everyone who enters a tweet and uses this hashtag can go and check out tweets from myself and their classmates.
I am pleased with the manner in which the students have adapted to using Twitter. They follow their classmates and myself but they are also following their sporting heroes and other entertainers. I believe Twitter is a safe medium and I have have explained to the students that they are not to follow or let anyone follow their tweets who they do not know. Of course they may not know the likes of LeBron James, Pink or Katy Perry but following people like these is quite harmless.
So I am hoping for success with the school executive on Monday and twitter will be opened up at school. Get tweeting!
Follow me on twitter @spainyhk