Some times it seems like we’re…

Some times it seems like we’re better at technology integration than people interoperability. But we humans are the original mashups, right?

Keep hoping that browsers stay…

Keep hoping that browsers stay speedy but look at Firefox. With every revision it moves like a turtle than a fox. Remember Word 5. Whats up?

Can’t believe school is starti…

Can’t believe school is starting already again. School really reminds how cyclical life is…

For our SBCC TurnItIn users, c…

For our SBCC TurnItIn users, check out its 7 new features (beginning 8/1/09) described on the FRC website at http://frc.sbcc.edu

25 educational uses of Twitter

From Sonja Cole - at TechLearning.com. Sonja recently (June 4, 09) wrote a short article listing 25 ways one could teach with Twitter. It’s more like 25 ways  you could use Twitter in education. There’s not much pedagogy involved here. Still, some of these might evolve into something useful for your classes so I’m passing her suggestions along anyway.

http://www.techlearning.com/article/20896

Maybe Twitterverse users with …

Maybe Twitterverse users with large following move to community Nings when number of followers and activities are self-sustaining

Noticed jump from personal blo…

Noticed jump from personal blog use to Ning communities for some bloggers. At what stage does this happen? Like going straight to wireless?

Twitter microsharing lecture

Twitter microsharing master recent lecture - Google vs. Twitter talk - http://bit.ly/7afvI

Twitter and instruction

Twitter has certainly gained more popularity as a microblogging tool from the recent outpouring of tweets disputing Iran’s political election results to meteorological storm chasers like Rick Sanchez of CNN of the past few years.

So, educational technologists like myself ask what pedagogical structures can make use of Twitter. Well here are some obvious examples:

1. Class Field trips - Teachers and students can report and share their preliminary findings from the field of a predetermined set of research questions. These tweets can be posted to a course blog or a Facebook site where students can later add more detail as well as share their findings with other students.

2. Expert in the field- A teacher or researcher in the field can answer questions from students in classes regarding their findings in the field. The teacher and students can work together to generate questions to send to the researcher who can respond as data are collected and initial findings are recorded. An example that comes to mind… The Space Station and class interactions that have already taken place. With some planning and coordination ahead of time, teachers can make arrangements for authentic classroom activities.

3. Student Mobile reporter - Students can use Twitter to report “local events” to a class blog site. Of course, teachers should be cautious in assigning activities that might put students at jeopardy for any reason such as “junior” storm chasers.

Now, if you’re just getting started with the mechanics of Twitter, you can always tinker with the tool. However, I recently purchased a book re Twitter basics, something I generally don’t do, because technologies like Twitter change so frequently. The book I purchased covers a lot of the basics including newer tools like Tweetdecks which is a Tweets aggregator of sorts.

The book is titled “Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets,” by Paul McFedries. You can purchase it at a local bookstore or via Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/mg2uo3 for around $20 list price…

As I find and come up with other uses of Twitter and instruction, I’ll be posting them to my blog.

Found twitter plugin that allo…

Found twitter plugin that allows me to post my tweets to my blog and vice versa - thanks to Alex King at alexking.org