30 Minutes with Twitter

Twitter....one of the most difficult Web 2.0 technologies to explain. Actually, it's easy to explain what it is....more difficult to explain its usefulness. So I just spent the last 30 minutes using Twitter and this blog is about where I went and what I learned (in chronological order).

From some recent twits, I learned that some Instructional Technologist that use Twitter are addicted to Web 2.0 technologies and I received a reply with a link regarding information about a local court case that basically has legalized gay marriage in NY State. This is useful since I am a co-advisor for our school's GSA club. Since I "follow" the uStream twit, I received information that singer James Blunt will be streaming live on uStream on Saturday Feb. 9. Next, I followed a shared link to a 4-minute video clip of Brian Regan, the comedian , talking about going to the eye doctor. Very funny and I forwarded it to a friend who has been avoiding the eye doctor.

Next, I searched a couple of specific terms in Tweetscan. I typed in "U23D" to see what people were saying about a movie I want to see next Friday when it comes to Rochester. I found over 50 tweets in the last couple of days from people who were generally ecstatic over the film. I also typed in the word "psychology" and I found that lots of people are studying psychology, many hate psychology, and only a few who did well on a test...fortunately, none were my psychology students.

I learned that not everyone is into LOST.

Two of my colleagues were on Twitter. I found out that Erin Ells was opening the new Professional Development Center for Webster School District by teaching a class on wikis. And what is apparently a good week for wikis, Barb Goldammer was teaching administrators about wikis.

I also had short conversation with Miguel Guhlin, IT Director for a large urban school district in Texas. I ended up subscribing to his blog but was interested in how he does Skype video conferences for a fee.

Somewhere along the line, I also was informed about an article by Mike Schmoker in Education Week, regarding educational "improvement plans."

I was privy to a conversation between 2 Twits who were troubleshooting a podcast feed usinga wiki, del.icio.us and iTunes. This was a little beyond my expertise, but something I probably could figure out if I wanted to send them a direct message.

I also learned about punoftheday.com, where I found things like "There was once a cross-eyed teacher who couldn't control his pupils." I decided to subscribe using Google Reader so I could read a pun a day.

Finally, I linked to AcademHack, that recently posted a list of academic uses of Twitter.

So have some fun and give Twitter a try... and if you want to follow my tweets...go here (of course, you will need to sign up for Twitter first).