...Okay just kidding (I stole that little joke from Neil Patrick Harris's first tweet, November 16th, 2009) obviously my learning process and application of twitter in both my personal and professional life cannot be summed up in the 140 character maximum of the tweet bar. As a matter of fact I had difficulty sending a message period, in under 140 characters.
1.) Five months ago, I never would have imagined signing up for a Twitter account, first off I thought the name Twitter was lame and all the cute names that came with it, tweet, twits, tweeps, etc. were all horrible, again these are all my thoughts before even seeing it. So I sign up for this course and in January I sign up for a Twitter account, @tgb6, doubting the benefits of it the whole time. Signing on was easy as can be. One interesting thing about the process was that Twitter had much higher standards for your password then my local online banking account. With Twitter they at least had a scale as you were typing in your proposed password to let you know if it was easy, medium, or hard to crack. The bank did not, interesting!
Once I got into Twitter I instantly went looking for people to follow. The very first 10 minutes that I was a member I was following Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzeneggar (whose last name is 10% of the max. 140 by the way), Ozzy Osbourne, Kevin Smith, and the NHL. Quite the mix of people, instantly you find that some people seem to be twittering constantly (Kevin Smith), and others not much at all (Ozzy Osbourne). Initially I knew nothing of what I was doing, nothing of retweeting, nothing of hashtags, and I was scared basically of what to 'tweet' as well. Soon all of our class was on there and we started tweeting each other and that eased my tension somewhat. Then I was speaking to a good friend of mine who owns a business in Calgary and has a twitter account set up for work, so I began following him. As my followings increased and I started picking up pointers from the discussions on eclass I began to become more comfortabe with the world of 'twits' and also I began to see the benefits of the tool in both a personal realm and the professional world, more on that later.
There are many sites out there that can help a person get comfortable with how to use twitter, this one I found particularly useful because of its simplicity and straight forward advice. This was the first big hurdle for me to overcome with Twitter, the whole what do I say and sound 'cool', 'smart', 'witty', and 'handsome'(yes tough to accomplish in text, but its worth a shot). Once you figure out what you want to say using Twitter, things become a lot clearer. Joanne and my friend John (with the business) both said the same thing, they used Twitter to connect with their students and colleagues whenever interesting articles or events came across their radars. This makes great sense and once I started looking at Twitter with this new lens things became more clear.
As with most of these cyber tools in the Web 2.0 universe there are some risks to consider with a Twitter account. Some minor flaws would be hashtag hijacking, where people see a trend and then insert that hashtag into their tweet to attract people's attention. False mention, where someone will use your user name to attract your attention. Some others include: misleading links, mass follow, falsifying tweets, and twitterns. These fouls can be found in the November 2009 issue of Public Relations Tactics magazine. A more serious security concern is the false impersonation of an individual or business. Twitter has set up badges for famous individuals that allow other users to know that they have the real person, however this has not happened just yet for businesses that are now using Twitter, such as financial institutions. This is a major concern for indentity theft. There are steps in process to get these financial accounts verified with authentic badges to let people know they are dealing with the business they are intending to deal with. This scenario shows the path of Twitter's growth. In 2006 it started mainly as a social tool to communicate with friends and follow celebrities, hence the authenticity badges for the 'true' celebrities, but now it has gained popularity in the business sector as well, and these areas must now be protected. As of last May Twitter claimed to have over 30 million users, a huge network of people and companies and with the 'retweet' option that Twitter has, you can reach thousands of people in only minutes. A fantastic tool for spreading news, in 140 characters, of course. Setting up lists, and hashtagging are also great tools to organize and locate 'tweets' on a specific topic or to a specific group of 'twitterers'.
2.) From a personal stand point I've enjoyed Twitter. Once I got into the tool and started searching for people to follow or interests that I have, the value increased considerably. I started to follow a couple of the sportscasters from TSN that I enjoy, I started to follow Rick Mercer, I started following my friends business account. The first couple are for fun and information, the TSN guys keep me up to date on the canadian view of the world of sports, Rick Mercer is a house hold favourite and he always has an interesting take on Canadian politics, and the last one has really helped me get connected with one of my best friends and what he does daily. (I also am now following his blog thanks to this course) As a learner it is nice to be able to go through Joanne's tweets and see what she has recommended for our class by clicking the #tldl544 hashtag and seeing all that comes up. 'Twitterment', aka the ability to search for a specific term is also a useful tool, to quickly search for an item or topic, and you can browse through and see if anything catches your eye. From a personal standpoint I enjoy Twitter over a Blog reader simply because of the 140 character max. In a very short time I can see all the information and links and decide if it is for me, plus multiple 'tweets' will show on the page, again making the browsing easier. As a parent there are a plethora of things you can easily locate using Twitter, games, shows, books, educational tools, etc, all you have to do is do a twitterment search of whatever it is you are after.
3.) From a professional/educator stand point I believe there is a place for Twitter. In a class setting, particularly a distance learning set up, having the ability to check into your twitter account to see if any ineresting sites or articles have been recommended is very valuable. It allows there to be a constant connection between student and instructor without the need to be in contact, as you don't have to be logged on to your computer to get the twitter updates they can come right to your cell phone. I've already began trying to find sites that can benefit my students, so that next year I can recommend that they follow me on Twitter so they can see any interesting cases, developments, or learning opportunities regarding ultrasound. These may not benefit them in my particular class (although I'm sure it won't hurt), but that is not the point it will benefit them universally in their chosen profession and thus make them more employable when they graduate. In the long run that is our ultimate goal as an institution to prepare them for the 'real' world, not just the exam at the end of the semester. I feel that Twitter can help do that, give them a chance to see other opinions and protocols that are out there. Many physicians are using twitter in this format, presenting interesting findings, posing questions, links to interesting articles/procedures. It is such a rapid and easy way to disseminate information, why wouldn't you want to use it to enhance your business, or to improve your employees, or to better educate your students, it just makes sense! This coming from a guy who thought it was a joke, and just another way for the younger generation to seperate from us aging X'ers. How wrong I was. Social media has a place in education, as with anything of course guidelines need to be in place, users must be aware of security issues, and above all be aware of what you 'write' as once it goes out there, its out there! In a recent eCampus News article is states that in a recent survey 98% of students felt that social networking was beneficial to their education, only 14% of instructors felt the same way. This is a huge disconnect and it is the instructors who have to change their attitudes and perceptions, I don't think this cyber world is a flash in the pan! We as instructors need to engage our students, we need to do all we can to reach them. We draw pictures, write on the white/chalk board, have handouts, do group work, use powerpoints, and lecture. Well now all you have to do is add, blogs, twitter, wikis, etc. its all the same premis, just a different time. We always hear about different learning styles and how we need to try and tap into all of them, I don't understand the reluctancy then to engage these students with something like Twitter and social networking.
In my other role as an ultrasound professional there is a benefit to Twitter for sure, I've located a few sites that have interesting cases or upcoming learing opportunities, and updates on the latest equipment that are very helpful. Our national society has nothing set up yet on Twitter, perhaps because of the small size of the group, 2500, or perhaps the lack of funds and staff to set up, run, and maintain a site. Hopefully in the near future they will have something for us on Twitter, something that would be easy to follow and help our profession keep up with ultrasound across Canada.
This was a great tool to explore and one that surprised me. After all was said and done, who would have thought so much could come out of 140 characters or less??? What if we shortened it some more....
... okay maybe not....yet!
Non-linked sources:
Berger, E., (2009). This sentence easily would fit on twitter: Emergency physicians are learning to "tweet". Annals of Emergency Medicine, 54(2), 23-25.
Pilcher, J., (2010). Growing use of twitter raises customer security concers. ABA Banking Journal, January, 27-28.
