Turning the screws on Twitter

Twitter has taken on a life of its own, in more ways than one. In January I wrote an innocuous looking post called Teaching with Twitter. It lay dormant for a few weeks before going viral. There were intermittent surges of interest, when a few other blogs and websites commented on it. Then the BBC News Website picked it up last week during the breaking news about the proposed new Primary curriculum here in the UK. They picked up the same link again this morning - this time because MPs are talking about 'a simpler curriculum' which features greater use of social media - and now my blog traffic is going through the roof. Whilst it is gratifying to see that people are taking a keen interest in the idea of microblogging, social networks and general use of the Web for teaching and learning, I can't help but feel a little uneasy.

Several posts I saw yesterday deserve another airing here to illustrate the point I wish to make. Neil Witt, one of my colleagues here at the University of Plymouth warned yesterday in his blog that Twitter is in danger of being overhyped. Neil argues that tools such as Twitter do not replace good teaching, but should be used to enhance it: "Surely it’s about giving students the skills to make judgements on information, to realise what they can trust and to make best use of resources". Another useful post which added to the debate comes courtesy of Sarah Horrigan who writes about what she terms 'Twetiquette'. She lists 7 key 'rules' she would like to see adopted for better practice Twitter use. Sarah complains about the potential misuse of Twitter. Two of her pet hates are people protecting their profiles so you can't see who is following you, and being followed by a service or company when it has not been requested. She makes some interesting points, but Sarah - the genie is now out of the bottle - and you have just coined a new term whether you like it or not!

Finally, a post from TechCrunch caught my eye yesterday. In a post entitled 'Is Twitter becoming the new Myspace?' the author lists some similarities between uses of the two services:

• There is a competition for followers similar to collecting “friends” on MySpace


• Anonymity is normal on both Twitter and Myspace, unlike Facebook


• Fake profiles are proliferating


• Real celebrity profiles are also proliferating, but they are often maintained by someone else for marketing, leading to spam


• Finally, the one most evident visually—services like Twitback, Twitterbacks and Twitterimage help you customize your profiles. You can compare Britney Spear’s profiles on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook respectively

Any teacher worth their salt will see some of the potential difficulties Twitter is running into, and the implications for child protection are clear. Twitter for example will block anyone under 13 (although this doesn't stop most young users from faking their Date of Birth). Teachers and parents are rightly concerned about how children use the Internet to gain access to content and people. Leaving aside the privacy and safety issues for one moment, if used appropriately in the classroom, I think tools like Twitter can provide a great deal of added value. Here are just three things I see Twitter bringing to the classroom:

1) Episodic Backchannelling: During any event, whether it is a lesson, a school concert or a sports day, children of all ages can create and send 140 character tweets on what is happening right there and then, their opinions on it, and its implications. Doing so will not only engage them more deeply in the event, but may cause them to think more critically about what they are witnessing.

2) Critical Writing: Because Twitter only allows 140 characters, children will need to think very carefully about what they will tweet. They will need to be concise, and possibly creative in the way they compose and present their tweet.

3) Social Filtering: Twitter can be used in a closed manner, with protection of updates and blocking of users. This can provide a secure bubble of activity where children are protected from being followed by outsiders, and where the teacher can maintain a reasonable level of control over discussions. The use of #tags and DMs (Direct messages) can also provide a useful filtered environment for specific themes.

I'm currently engaged in research with some colleagues here investigating how we can use Twitter in higher education. I would of course, be very interested to hear from teachers in the primary and secondary sectors who would like to study the uses of Twitter in their own professional contexts. The jury is still out on Twitter. Want to be one of the members of the panel?

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