Earlier this morning, I was at my local auto shop getting a flat tire fixed on my truck. While I was waiting on it to be fixed, I had a conversation with another gentleman about some current events and other stories that was on the morning show, MSNBC Today. One of the stories was about one of the news anchors, Brian Williams, and the fact that he had over 55,000 followers and he has posted 0 tweets. The gentleman I was speaking with said, "I don't understand that Twitter stuff" and it was pointless to post things on twitter about what you are doing every second of every day. Unfortunately, my tire was fixed at that moment and I didn't have a chance to explain what Twitter is really about.
But what is Twitter really about? Is it really a waste of time? Most of the time, when I talk to someone about Twitter they automatically go into talking about how people will tweet something like what they are watching on tv or even when they are "using the facilities". Sure, there are people out there that do use Twitter for this sole purpose. However, what can Twitter really do and what is it meant to be?
One of the things that really doesn't come in a conversation about Twitter is how it makes sharing information, news, articles, and links so much easier than just plain email or Facebook. I started my Twitter account many months ago for a source of educational professional development. In doing so, I have been introduced to many educators and educational tools that some may not even be aware of.
One of these tools that I extremely love and invest a lot of time on is livebinders.com (you can follow livebinders on twitter, @livebinders). This website has provided a great tool to gather notes, links, and other resources to make for easy and quick reference of information or website links that you can share on your website or even share on twitter. Here's an example of how you can share your Livebinder on Twitter:
With Twitter, I can share this Livebinder and let all my followers access this free information. The other good thing about posting your Livebinder on Twitter, is that it can be "retweeted" or "re-posted" by one of your followers. Meaning, that a multitude of people can see this by just having posted it once.
There are so many other opportunities that can be found on Twitter, which I will discuss on my next blog update. In the mean time, if you are a teacher or in the field of education, you owe it to yourself to start a Twitter account and start a account at Livebinders.com, which both resources are free.
Feel free to follow me @justinstallings.
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