For example, they find Twitter a great source of news and information.  For me, I am still an avid blog reader, now addicted to Google Reader.  At least half of the Tweets I get from friends are “awesome blog post here: ______”  or – even worse – a re-tweet (RT) of someone else pointing out a cool blog post.  But since I use Google Reader, I have already read that blog post, or another one on the same subject, about 90% of the time.  I know everyone says blogs have died or will die – but then what would most people tweet about?  Really – I just don’t see Twitter being anything without regular, old blogs.

Speaking of which – what is up with all of the RT’s?  It seems like some people don’t do anything but RT someone else pointing to a cool blog post somewhere.  But where is the original content, or even some commentary, or even a haiku of original material?  Only two people that I follow on Twitter actually Tweet original content on a consistent basis: the local weather guy, and George Siemens.  Oh, if only more people could Tweet like George.

Well, okay – there are more than two.  But the others that have original content all do the other thing that makes Twitter irrelevant to me – they sync their Tweets with their FaceBook status.  Why would I read what you are doing for dinner on Twitter or a smart phone or whatever when I can go to a much more interesting place like FaceBook and play some games and argue about conspiracy theories all at the same time?  Yes, I know some people think FaceBook games are pretty pointless, but I guess I am different.  I call someone a friend because I am interested in getting to know them.  If I am not interested, I don’t accept the request.  But accepting that request means that yes, I am interested in knowing what 80’s song you are, or how you feel about Obamacare, or what not.  That is how I treat friends – I care about the real news and the trivial in their life.   Too many misanthropes out there gripping about FaceBook, in my opinion.

Anyway – I should stop to explain my history with Twitter.  I started following Twitter day 1 when Odeo originally announced they were starting it.  I didn’t request a Beta account then – I thought it looked boring.  In fact, if you are one of the five people that have been reading this blog for a while, you probably remember when we raved about Jaiku at first.  Jaiku was a cool Twitter competitor that had little mood icons, groups, and much cooler badges than Twitter in the early days.  But Google bought Jaiku and killed them as a serious competitor.  But I still remember when everyone asked “Twitter or Jaiku?”

Speaking of Jaiku, there are many other sites that do Twitter much better than Twitter does.  I mean – seriously – why do I have to take up a chunk of my 140 characters to insert a link or a link to a pic or whatever?  It is 2009 – when is Twitter going to catch up with where email was in 1989 and allow attachments, like other micro-blog services do so well?  Just wondering.

There is some hope for me using Twitter.  The local weather guy Tweeting updates is one of them – finally some good content that I haven’t already read on FaceBook or five other blogs.  That will keep me coming back to Twitter each day.  A few magazines have caught on to that too, as well as celebrity writers/bloggers like David Pogue.

Well, Pogue made me want to petition for the banishment of RT’s from Twitter all together, but that is another story :)

But should we abandon Twitter, just because I find it boring?  Never!  That is one huge problem I see in Ed Tech circles: someone doesn’t like something, so they trash others that use it, and try to convince as many as they can that it is bad to use.  Many people use Twitter for some cool things in online education.  I keep my Twitter account around because I like to see how people use it, even though I probably never will in the classes I teach. I get the bigger picture, and I think Twitter has a place in the bigger picture.

RT’s on the other hand….

Tweet This Post

You wouldn’t – but that is the wrong question to ask.  It is the same as asking “Why would I want to watch TV when there are soap operas on there?”  If you pick the most inane use of any technology, then of course it will seem like a waste of time.

So is it a waste of time? If you use it that way – then yes, it is.  If you have a bigger vision for it, then… no, it isn’t.

What is the bigger vision? Think problem solving, research, and breaking news.  Twitter users broke the miracle on the Hudson story, after all.

The New York Times has a good break down of what I am talking about with this article: Putting Twitter’s World to Use.  I was surprised to see that Twitter is now the third largest online social network behind FaceBook and MySpace.  No wonder I keep getting server errors from them :)

I love this quote from the Times article:

“Twitter reverses the notion of the group,” said Paul Saffo, the Silicon Valley futurist. “Instead of creating the group you want, you send it and the group self-assembles.”

What about Twitter in education?  Chris Duke taught a great session at the 2009 TxDLA conference called Learning With Microblogging and Twitter.  Some great ideas were shared in that presentation – you can see the session materials online here.

In fact, at TxDLA 2009, several people Twittered about internet problems at their hotel and received fast responses from the that hotel’s corporation.  Think nobody cares about Twitter? Think again.

Here is a TwitterFountain widget about TxDLA ‘09 to help you sere some of the bigger vision:

Tweet This Post

But is social networking getting ready to claim its spot in cyber history, or just getting ready to really, truly explode?  Maybe it will die, or maybe we will see a steady increase in the future instead of another explosion.  But there are some interesting developments.

Ning was started as a “create-your-own-social-network” service a while back.  While it didn’t exactly change the world, it is inspiring others to do the same.  Shout’Em is a new service that allows you to create your own micro-blog service.  Right now it is in Beta, but you can see the EduGeek Shout’em site to see what it is like.  It does have a few features that Twitter doesn’t.  You can also create a private network, or customize the look of your network.  This could be great for creating your own network for your class… except for one glitch.  After the private Beta, they plan on charge $10 a month for each upgrade you want.  So, if you want a private network for your class with a custom design, that would be $20 a month.  Probably a deal killer for doing this on a class level, unless of course you can be okay with having an open network.  Which sounds like a good idea to me, at least at the college level.  (If you want to join the EduGeek network, you can use the invitation code of “doneright” – thanks to Teach42.com for the tip)

With the fees that they charge, Shout’em seems to be targeting businesses more than schools.  Yammer is also doing this, but with a different approach. Yammer seems to  base their networks around your email address.

Another interesting development is Google FriendConnect.  You can see the widgets in the sidebars of this site to see what they are like.  Google is letting you create social networks based around a site that you own.  They say they are going to roll-out some more features in the future.  Feel free to join ours to see what it is like.  The only hindrance with this one is that it can only be used by the person that owns a site.  You can’t add this to, say, a class hosted on BlackBoard.  If your school installed BlackBoard on their server and also will install the two required files on their site, however – you could be in business.

And speaking of Blackboard, I will say that I liked the integration with social networking tools that I am starting to see in their software.  Not sure if I can say exactly what I saw yet, but they are taking that in to consideration.

Tweet This Post

The story also discusses how Web 2.0 and the internet has and will change democracy, and it even ponders how our country would be different had our founding fathers had access to the internet.

(You can listen in on the twitter debate here or here.)

Tweet This Post

Well, I decided to do something about that, at least with my small circle of friends. Thanks to Ning, I start a social network specifically for Ed Tech people. Of course, there is a discussion board for sharing new ideas and discussing stuff (attachments allowed). But you can also stream photos from a Flickr account into the site (or upload straight to the site). You can add a YouTube (or any other online video service) video – or upload one straight to the site. All of this can be tagged and commented on. Plus all of the other features of social networking. RSS feeds are everywhere, including the latest updates list – so you don’t have to constantly hit the site to see if there is anything new.

Click here to go to the EduGeek Journal social network.

If you want to join the site, I recommend first going to the main Ning site and getting a Ning ID. Doing this will let you join other Ning social networks, too.

You’ll also notice that there is an EduGeek Journal Jaiku Channel. Anyone with a Jaiku account can join the channel and send micro-blogs to the channel. Jaiku isn’t currently accepting new accounts, unfortunately, as they were just bought by Google. I wanted to put off announcing the channel until new accounts were allowed, but that is taking a while. But for those of you that like to micro-blog but not social network, this is another avenue to add ideas to the EduGeek Journal network.

Tweet This Post

• Search the internet (Google)
• Look up images (Google Images)
• Find directions (Google Maps)
• Watch videos (Google Video/YouTube)
• Post to my personal Blog (Blogger)
• Check traffic (Google Maps)
• Find lowest online prices for purchases (Froogle)
• Read the news (Google News)
• Read/post to newsgroups and mailing lists (Google Groups)
• Get stats on my websites (Google Analytics)
• Develop/collaborate on documents, presentations, spreadsheets (Google Docs)
• Read my RSS feeds (iGoogle)
• Develop my personalized, interactive browser home page (iGoogle)
• Find files on my computer (Google Desktop)
• Check email (Gmail)
• Chat with friends/colleagues (Google Talk)

And these are just a few of the things I/we do every day. I’m impressed that Google went with Jaiku instead of the much more publicized Twitter. Proof (to me, at least) that they’re going for quality. With this in mind, I’m wondering what’s next?

• Will Google snatch up its own share of Facebook — just enough to edge out Microsoft? Sure Google has Orkut, but Facebook is huge … and growing exponentially… and follows the same clean and simple design that Google’s known for.
• Will Google somehow woo Flickr users to its own online photo storage tool? (I’m just not a fan … currently … of Google’s Picasa. IMHO, Yahoo’s Flickr is still the powerhouse in this arena.)
• Will Google overthrow the metaverse by releasing its own virtual world, eclipsing current favorites such as Second Life? Heck, we’ve already been building that virtual world for them. Check out all the cities, buildings, structures, etc. that have been built in 3-D by you and me using Google’s Sketchup software.

Wouldn’t it be great to sit in on a meeting at Google where they’re discussing all their upcoming projects/mergers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we found out our future includes:

• Google Weather – They already have the maps. Now they just need to buy out The Weather Channel or Intellicast and overlay their weather maps.
• Google Vacations – We (you and I) are already adding in the user reviews into Google Maps for hotels, restaurants, and attractions. Google already has a way to purchase goods/services via Google Checkout. Now all they need to do is buy out Expedia, Travelocity, or Priceline.
• Google Movies – Google already can distribute media via Google Video or YouTube. Now they can buy out Netflix so they have the video-on-demand capabilities. Definitely subscription-based.
• Google Library – This one’s a little tricky. Like Google Movies, would probably be subscription based. (Plus they’d have to figure out a way to restrict printing/saving/etc.) Google’s already scanning library upon library of material. Now just make it available to users to read books cover to cover. Throw in the ability to search news/journal databases, and college students worldwide would sign right up.
• Google Conferencing – Combine Google Talk with plugins that enable a collaborative whiteboard, group voice chat, and application sharing, and you’ve got your own web conferencing tool. Watch out Elluminate Live and Horizon Wimba.

But enough dreaming. You guys can continue speculating in the comments. (It’s actually really fun pondering what Google will do next!) Needless to say, I’d be very interested in seeing this mythical Google phone we keep hearing about. Surely this device will give users very easy access to Google services… which is pretty darn impressive considering what we’ve just talked about. Steve Jobs might be a little concerned about this, come to think of it.

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post