It's A Jungle Out There

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh My! (Wizard of OZ)
[I had Pics but they wouldn't load:( ]

How will we sort through all the social media possibilities that are around? It's a jungle out there - so much is unknown - plants, animals, smells, and the whole environment. What about the safety issue? I wouldn't know what plants or critters could harm me. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the experience but with a guide. Are our students today more adventurous? Are they willing to put themselves into potentially dangerous situations? Social networking can be like that jungle as there is so much to discover in Web 2.0.

I'd like to visit one little corner of the Web 2.0 jungle - the one that looks at social networking with more of a student applicable approach. If I break down some of the many social networking opportunities - and there are many - according to Wikipedia there are 155 so far. To understand it better, we must consider micro-blogging.

Micro-Blogging Basics

Micro-blogging is a term described by Wikipedia as "a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user". 10 Micro-Blogging Tools also mentions that Twitter is an open platform base where third party developers can build on top of it. That really makes it interactive and evolving. Let's look at a couple of choices but with a focus - what is educationally sound about social media applications and how they can be used in a school setting. In other words, how can I use these tools to make it real for the students at school?

Facebook

We are familiar with Facebook in the personal setting. Or at least our students are familiar with spending time on Facebook. Users can add friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Users can also join networks organized by location and school for example. How does this relate to school use?

Facebook - Educational?

Facebook can work in the school as this study shows. Here's an example of how it has worked Stewart's Facebook and Virtual Literature Circle.... The term 'networking social scholarship' was created in virtual literature circles where students collaborated with their groups. The Chat feature of Facebook substituted for face-to-face interaction as the students were from different classes. The school librarian took "a predominantly social experience [and turned it] into a successful academic learning environment." That's one example of how Facebook works in the classroom. Let me share another.

Levinson's Schools and Facebook: Moving Too Fast or Not Fast Enough? "Facebook forces interaction and active learning. It has speed and multi-tasking wrapped into one page." In this classroom example, the students suggested taking the Facebook assignment to the next level by adding that they should "create Facebook pages for the three leaders and be required to chat, post and debate online." This shows the dynamics of incorporating student interaction. Therefore, we have to realize that "schools must address and embrace the prolific energy surrounding the Facebook age" as it will strengthen the learning our students do. We can see that Facebook can work - what about Twitter?

Twitter

Twitter (Wikipedia) is "a short burst of inconsequential information". Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey were the inventors. The first message was created March 2006 by Dorey even though the inspiration started in 2000. The application Twitter allows users to send brief texts of up to 140 characters called tweets. A problem in schools is the privacy concern. They consider that information is an asset and can sell it if the company changes hands. No good with minors involved. What else can we learn about it.

In the ebook Twitter for Beginners, by Kingston, our understanding is clarified. People tweet about --observations in life, books to read, blogs to read, humour is shared, inspirating thoughts, professional news, resource links to share, workdate details, business issues and challenges, and follow families (p.6). Here are three components I didn't know before - friends (you follow and they follow you back), fans (people who follow you), and inspiration (you follow but they don't follow back)p.14. Did you know you can manage your stats? You can even access Twitter by cell phones. It certainly claims to do a lot.

How Twitter works

Here's a little bit the language needed to join the twitterworld. Here are some tips from social networking guru Male's. His "Twitter 101" suggests some of the lingo to know: tweets, replies, retweets, hastags, twooshes, direct messages, tweetups. Here are a couple: @(username) = a reply and retweets - "RT@(username)" are used when you refer to another tweet and give the person credit. (Others will presented elsewhere in this post.)

With any online presence, manners are in order. Here are some Twitter suggestions.
Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don'ts by Lynch Twittequette is a set of unwritten guidelines — or etiquette — that dictates good (or bad) behaviour on the service. The five things are:
1. How to follow and un-follow people
2. Be up front about your twitter aspirations
3. Be personal (to a point)
4. Reciprocate gracefully
5. Use the direct message correctly

With this being primarily a writing medium, here are some writing tips. Twitter Tips: How to Write Better Tweets by Lynch, talks about writing is essential because it's short it needs to be written well. Seven steps to writing a successful Twitter headline - guidelines: "keep it short, no puns, use keywords, use hashtags, don't consolidate stories (one tweet per story), link directly to story (not home page), and don't use subheads." What about the rest of the writing? I certainly don't know the terminology so here's a 'dictionary' of twitterspeak.

Connections with Classrooms and Professionals

The theory behind the program sounds good in cyberspace, but how does it translate into my classroom? To begin with Barack's Tweens All a Twitter clarifies a point about students: "as anyone who interacts regularly with teens knows, email is no longer the preferred way of communicating. Too old school for them. The hip way is to chat now? Tweeting--basically, posting text messages online." It's like getting "little teaser messages".

How can we take these small bits and work with them? Here's a connection we can use with our teens, Twitterlit--"this site provides the first line from selected books, then links to the titles on Amazon." I like this blended application.

Valenza's twitter offered this link to Brogan's A Brief and Informal Twitter Etiquette Guide. This compilation of suggestions for twitter users is a great example of how colaboration works.

English teachers can appreciate this article by Bell, What's All This Noise About Twitter?. Ever heard of microstories? This is Twitter Fiction and it sounds like fun. The trick is to write a short (VERY short) story in just 140 characters, Twitter Fiction . Have your students share them online (or not if you're blocked.) People are using Twitter for haiku too. Another site to try is Twitter Poetry. There certainly are some practical possibilities.

This is interesting how the adults are utilizing social networks. Professionals are using Twitter to keep in touch at conferences as Working the Social: Twitter... by Carscaddon and Harris shows. "The service is eminently customizable", depending on how many followers you choose to include in your stream, you can use Twitter "to get the play-by-play of conference updates remotely, or keep tabs on any of a number of ongoing topics of interest." It's great to see this useful application.

What's happening with library uses? Harris suggests having Tweets at Your Library. Here's to taking twittering to the extreme by summarizing this to 128 words: "Micro-content is a new form of writing that captures and transmits the essence of ideas in short, rapid bursts of information". Keep it short and simple. He mentions using micro-content to send out short daily messages about program highlights, new resources or book recommendations.

In King's blog - Twitter Explained for Librarians, 10 ways to use twitter , it offers: stay in touch, use private messages, keep up-to-date with emerging tools, news updates, follow conferences, instant response, job prospects, check out colleagues twitter feeds, send yourself notes, and awareness for current happenings. That sounds reasonable; it's this next one I have questions about.

In Bradley's blog - Using Twitter in Libraries, some things just don't make sense. I can ask questions, and identify experts in the field, - I get that. For these following suggestions, I'm not so sure.
- Hours of operation - Does it change? -Mine doesn't.
- Add new resources - I wouldn't be able to keep up with it
- General info - It doesn't change & it would be on the blog.
- Countdown for events - That could get monotonous.
- Linking to images - Again, use the blog
- News feeds - Will people really check it that often in my small community?

Just a note of observation, the libraries that are using twitter seem to have a larger base following them - public libraries, post-secondary level. I'm not sure if this use of Twitter applies to my school setting.

To Twitter or Facebook - That is the Question

[I purposely didn't include Facebook in my Social Networking post knowing I would compare them here.]
Both Facebook and Twitter are widely being used, so how would you compare these social networking services? Is one better than the other? Can one be applied in schools to make it real? Can I see incorporating them into my program?

U of Calgary's Wiki, Twitter - Next Facebook or Fad? looks at a comparison between the two.

Twitter:
- not as many applications and functions as Facebook.
- simpler to use as is computer friendly for novices
- not cluttered with pictures, messages and walls of Facebook
- at the peak of its popularity
- gaining recognition across the world from bloggers
- applications are being created - used to check other people's status - used to raise awareness about humanitarian issues and politics
- companies are using it for advertising. - open privacy and security is a concern as shared with third party

Not a fad from what I can see. Let's look at another perspective. Here is a quote from Impact Lab's Goliath to Twitter’s Daniel.
"Facebook has a fundamentally different relationship model than Twitter. On Facebook, you create a simple two-way friendship with someone. On Twitter, you can choose to follow someone and you can be followed, but the subsequent relationship doesn’t have to be bidirectional." Facebook revolves around more communication whereas Twitter uses the information provided. " Twitter is fast becoming the place to be to get your most updated news blurbs before it hits the mainstream media outlets." Male provided an example of this on Eluminate with the weather story in Edmonton.

These are two different social media platforms serving two different purposes - it looks like they're both here to stay. Can you see how they can intertwine?

Upsides and Downsides

Plusses - This free, quick communicative tool widely used with many applications as previously mentioned. Connects with our students to engage their learning.

Minuses - Some suggest it is too chatty, takes up too much of your time, not relevant to anything. Bell in Celebrating Communicating: Online Support Groups, suggests that online communication isn't always truthful. Here's a quote:
"I heard from a couple of users who did report problems arising from groups that did not work well for them. One person reported problems with people who misrepresented themselves and then asked for financial help from fellow users. Someone else described a group where people frequently got into heated discussions over politics, religion, and other issues."

Another consideration considers the emotional aspect. "Some people seem a little clubby, with inside jokes and comments, causing you to feel left out." A lot of those feelings will recede after you have been part of the community for a while, they suggest. And if the feeling persists, stop following them.
Here's a concern I have about truncating URL's. In the past we could truncate a url to find the source (if it was a bad link) - now, how will we be able to accomplish the same feat wit this truncated version of an original URL? What about citing tweets? That will be a challenge and be longer than the quote was in the first place - my goodness.

Twittering on a Limb in the Jungle

With a Twitter account under my belt - I headed off into the wilds of Twitterland. My start was slow as I seemed to get stopped right away. I signed up all my classmates only to find half of them following - not much to go on. I went looking for people but unless you know what name they're using it can be difficult. I decided to send out a few tweets.

I looked into adding a Tweetdeck. You can share photos; manage conversations with @replies and direct messages; create groups to easily follow friends, colleagues or interest groups; follow topics in real-time; preview short URL's; manage multiple Twitter accounts; allows for TweetDeck to be backed-up; view photo thumbnails. Record, share, watch video clips; and avoid spam with a spam button. I'm not a heavy user to need all these extras. The basics are available with the original format. Since attending Mack Male's Elluminate disussion, he suggested that he didn't need the tweetdeck - so I feel justified in not downloading it either.

How can I lurk and find info on Twitter? I've not been successful initially. I looked up some librarians and added them. There was video about hashtags (# hashtag) - used to employ a category topic, so I tried that.
I watched a video on how to create hash tags. Here's Mari Smith's tutorial on Twitter Hashtags.



Was there anything you haven't seen before?

I then went to #hashtags to look up some tags to find groups - boy was that a mistake - there must be thousands of them - not much luck on my many searches. Then a tweet suggested #followalibrarian. My inital tweets found little information or they were of a business nature. So I created my own #web2middle. Can you guess what it stands for?

Next I tried Search.twitter.com - what's hapening right now? Nothing I could really use. Next step, try Twellow is a directory, search and yellow pages for Twitter - there is an education category too. So I've got a beginning - seems I'll need more time to really benefit from this application.

Mack Male's suggestion to try local people through the airport code, for me it warranted 6 tweets. Not much to go on there. I guess I won't be tweeting up with anyone. Tweetup = meeting up face-to-face with the people you've met on Twitter. It was cool to see classmates trying to Twoosh or post exactly 140 characters. And I tried some direct messaging.

I learned how to shorten URLs. This is crucial because you have to maximize your use of characters. I used Tiny URL although there are others available for free.

On GeekyMomma's Blog: Twitter in Schools; What Does it Really Look Like? I was happy to see that the link had a neighbouring school district using twitter on the Google doc spreadsheet that was presented . When I checked it out - I learned it was for voting purposes for the trustees. I guess it has a purpose, but not closely related to my uses. It's pretty neat that it was automatically updated every 5 minutes - you can't get much more current than that - a great way to collect stats. What other examples can I share?

Examples of Twittering

This tweet from a midle school T-L Twitter makes me happy:) I guess I just need more time. McEwen writes:
"I have been part of the twittersphere for two weeks. I have gained more professional development from participating in Twitter for the past two weeks than I have gained for the past year (or more) in my current role as teacher-librarian at a middle school. I follow folks who share my interests; many of whom are leaders in their field (library, web 2.0, teaching & education). I now have a database of phenomenal/highly useful websites I frequent that, if it wasn't for Twitter, I wouldn't know about. There is a lot of kinship with fellow Twitterers. We enjoy helping each other out, all you need to do is send out a Tweet. Whether you're looking for a tool, an idea, or feedback - instant feedback it one of Twitter's strengths. Like all social networking tools Twitter can be a powerful learning tool or not - it depends how you choose to use it. Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. I'm off to Tweet!"

A couple of ideas - Twitter post @followalibrarian from Laura on June 8, 2009. 5 Ways for your Library to [not] Fail at Twitter - I checked out the link and sumized - use current terminology, post a picture, link, follow and engage in conversation; and this tweet talks of how to use hashtag. - eclasper: When I do my twitter workshops I'm just going to show them how 2 search #followalibrarian tag 2 find cool librarians 2 follow.

Collect your gear the trip's over for now

Wow - there sure has been a lot to cover on this topic. Not the venue for a tweet was it? During Male's Elluminate discussion, I like how he compared Facebook, Twitter and Flickr - Facebook you need to add a friend, Twitter was open, and Flickr was optional for access. He aso compared twitter and blogs. Twitter for immediate requests and responses whereas blogs are for longer term items. For example you could gather the facts on Twitter and then write up the story later on the blog thereby giving value to both venues. That's the bottom line - they both have a place in society, but is that place in the classroom.

Will I be able to use Twitter in my classes? I'd love to say yes, but first I have to see if it's blocked ay my school - I've not tried before. How to make the learning of these tools real? I'd love to try the twitter fiction, I think the students would enjoy the cross-over. I'd also like to use it professionally and connect with others at my next conference. Do I think it will gain more momentum? It will with our students but unfortunately it will be a longer haul for our teachers - we certainly have our work cut out for us. Teachers don't have a trendy reputation - we'll have to change that.

How does the future look for social networking? Mack suggests two things: filtering will be brought to the forefront along with aggregation of feeds and location (through GPS) and mobility will become transparent. Will we be ready for this high paced change? We'll have to be or be tumbled over by it.

Sources

Barack, Lauren. (2007, October). Tweens All a Twitter. School Library Journal, 53(10), 26. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1348727811). Access http://tinyurl.com/km5qv5

Bell, M.. (2008, May). What's All This Noise About Twitter? MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 15(3), 36-38. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1478071751). Access http://tinyurl.com/nvugkl

Bell, Mary Ann. (2007, July). Celebrating Communicating: Online Support Groups. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 14(4), 37-38. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1323966281). Access http://tinyurl.com/nsmvcp

Carscaddon, Laura and Harris, Colleen. (2009, June). Working the Social: Twitter and Friendfeed. Library Journal 6/15/2009, Vol. 134 Issue 11, p24-26, 3p Access http://tinyurl.com/n3oj44

Harris, Christopher. (2007, November). Tweets at Your Library. School Library Journal, 53(11), 24. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1375667231). Access http://tinyurl.com/nggjle

Stewart, P.. (2009). Facebook and Virtual Literature Circle Partnership in Building a Community of Readers. Knowledge Quest, 37(4), 28-33. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1709435551). Access http://tinyurl.com/mdtjus