Twitter started out with the simple question “What are you doing?”, a teacher’s dream for realistic writing using the Present Continuous!

In 140 characters, your response to that question was supposed to keep you up to speed with friends, family and colleagues around the world.

One of the Commoncraft videos on Twitter

 

Millions of users do just that. They refresh their status update and answer this questions with the small details of their day, what they are having for breakfast,  what they are watching on TV, etc.

When I first registered, I could not see how anyone might be so interested in the mundane details of my life and stayed out of the tweeting game for quite a while. The funny video which follows shows my feelings about Twitter during my first few weeks.

Then I started meeting some interesting colleagues and from them, I met some more and some more… I started noticing their interactions and their tweets were nothing but boring, but led me to all sorts of information and interesting resources.

Of course, like any social networking medium, interactions in Twitter have their own ettiquette – ofter referred to as Twetiiquette – rules about what to say and who to say it to, as this short video advises:

And here is another blog entry with some good pointers on TWettiquete.

Mashable, a social media guide website, has a great collection of posts regarding making your Twitter experience a more enjoyable and useful one here

Today, I feel that checking my Twitter every so often, in te same way I check my inbox and Facebook, is just a natural part of my day.

I learn from great people and I share what I learn either by re-tweeting it (RT) or by tweeting some interesting links that I have found and thin they are worth sharing.

One could claim there are often times when there is not much of a real conversation going on but I shall end this post on a positive note – Twitter is another new and fantastic tool for sharing knowledge and developing as teachers. And that’s just one small part of what one can learn by being in touch with interesting people!

____________________________________________________________________________

Study with me facebookdelta

Print Friendly, PDF & Email