Web Tool #2: Twitter

A bird does not sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song. --Chinese Proverb

Now that I have started to use this tool in earnest to build my PLN (although I’m still mostly ‘lurking’), I am seeing Twitter in an entirely new light. Hardly a day goes by without me discovering a useful comment or website to bookmark with Diigo. It also works hand in hand with Google Reader. For example, as I add more people to follow and read their tweets and retweets, I discover new blogs to add to RSS.

Research shows that educators are using Twitter for three main purposes: 1) to stay current, 2) to network and 3) to participate in conference backchannel (Gerstein, 2011). Furthermore, Twitter increases in its PLN value with time invested. In this blog, Mark Marshall (2009) discusses how Twitter reaches its full potential once you’ve established a niche and a collaborative dialogue within it.

Throughout this project I will use Twitter to stay current. I'm hoping to dive in, stop "lurking", and start "tweeting".

References:

Gerstein, J. (2011). The use of twitter for professional growth and development. International Journal on ELearning, 10(3), 273-276. Retrieved October 1, 2011, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2431456601).

Marshall, M. (2009, March 9). Twitter-what is it and why would I use it [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://markmarshall.edublogs.org/2009/03/09/twitter-what-is-it-and-why-would-i-use-it/