Hadley, F. (2010, June/July). Join the flock. Learning and Leading, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-june-july-2010.aspx
Miller, S. (2010, June/July). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and Leading, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-june-july-2010.aspx
Between the two article a great deal of twitter terminology was introduced. The most important term introduced is that of PLN, "a PLN is a community of individuals around the world who are learning together...[it] helps these strangers come together to creat a community built on communication and collaboration dedicated to making learning and education the best it can be." (Hadley, 2010) My first reaction to this statement was, "is this the same twitter?" As long as I have known twitter, I had come to the belief that it was a social networking site that was mostly used by celebrities. The thought that it could be used for educational purposes surprised me. When we were in class and we were given the task of signing up for twitter. I was very opposed to this task at first but as we continued learning about the advantages of twitter I realized that it was so much more than a place for celebrities to vent. Miller mentioned a way to organize twitter streams, "TweetDeck..organize your Twitter stream into columns, such as All Friends, Mentions, Direct Messages..." (Miller, 2010). While this tool at first seems overwhelming it is actually quite useful especially when a person has many people that they are following and also for the different subjects a person follows.
Q1) Can educators really profit from the use of twitter?
Yes, from all the evidence twitter is a networking site that connects people (like educators) across the world to share ideas, resources and lesson plans. Miller wrote about how her students were able to be taught about technology from a teacher in New Zealand. How amazing is that! A child could go home and tell their parents they were connected to New Zealand during a lesson.
Q2) Why does it seem that twitter is only publized as a social networking site for young people and celebrities?
I believe this is the fault of the media. The media is constantly displaying what celebritites say on their twitters, it is the place to get news nowadays. Also since the news constantly speaks negatively of twitter on their broadcasts, adults feel that it is not a suitable site for their teenage children. While they may have reasonable evidence twitter wouldn't have to be negative it adults learned the benefits of twitter and introduced those to their children. As educators this would be a way to introduce twitter.
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