As I prepped I was relatively unsure how to proceed, but I knew I had very limited time (I could spend a full day teaching either Facebook or Twitter alone). I also knew this generation had different values, interests, and perspectives than mine. For example, many were retired and/or had community ed volunteerism they did regularly. They also were much more hesitant about publicizing any part of their lives than the Millenials who post EVERYTHING online.

I felt that for this audience, videos that they could access at the leisure would be best, so I made a handout for each application, set up wiki sites for the materials, and then began making and compiling videos.

When I arrived at the session, there was no wifi and the hardwire left much to be desired. Of course, we do what we can as presenters/educators so I improvised. Can you imagine teaching Twitter to a room of 55-80 year olds using a whiteboard? It was relatively ironic for 15 minutes. We were able to have the projector set up in the next room, and we all moved over there.

One man said he didn’t think he’d use this stuff, so I asked him what he does. He said he was a director (?) at Mesa Arts Center. Of course, BOTH of these apps would be perfect for him and his work. I hope he took something home.

I discussed Twitter first, planning to spend more time on Facebook since I did see many of them wanted to connect with out of town family. One woman said “My grand kid won’t pick a phone to call me but he’s always writing on there or putting pictures there.” I good naturedly told her I could teach her to stalk him. (Yes, this is tongue in cheek.) I could tell other people did have side groups, volunteerism, and organizations where they could use these. Facebook would’ve been longer but the start was a little rocky and everyone always needs a break.

With Twitter I discussed the four Is of Instructional, Informative, Inquiry, and Insightful developed by Biray Alsac. Instructional is that information someone can tweet that others can use and learn from (free legal advice from a retired lawyer, etc…); Informative is that information that someone can tweet that is perhaps an online news article or breaking news in their area about something that affects multiple people; Inquiry is that information that someone can tweet that is perhaps a question they have about something local (how long is that special art show running) to something national (when are the elections for XXX); Lastly, insightful, in terms specifically with this group, is that information that someone can tweet that is perhaps a life lessons learned and is now being instilled upon others publicly.

At the break some people needed to leave and I handed out cards, and then we moved into Facebook. With 40 minutes left, I felt that signing in, creating a profile, posting statuses, commenting, uploading photos, finding friends, and searching for alumni were the most important points to learn. Now we all know I cannot teach those all in 40 minutes, but I did over view them all and navigate the Boomers to my online videos teaching them all of those actions in Facebook.

The audience was very receptive to my work and eager to learn. They definitely did have questions about security. I showed them how to protect updates in Twitter and block users, and how to build limited profiles in Facebook.

Afterward they all took my cards, and actually a Mesa city Life Long Learners group has contacted me to repeat the presentation for their group. The Mesa Life Options director has also said she will be in contact for me to work with the local rotary to do some of this work as well.

If you’d like to review the work I’ve done for them, I would love your feedback. http://devoncadams.pbworks.com

Hi, My name is Devon and I have a problem… No seriously though, I’ve been on Twitter for almost two years now, and yes, when I explain it to others, they look at me like I need a padded room and some Cialis. In part, Twitter began as a simple micro blog that answers “What are you doing right now?” but as simple as that sounds, it’s not anymore.

My timeline (that’s Twitter timeline for you noobs) has been popping off about the new Time article on Twitter: “How Twitter will change the way we live” from June 5, 2009, and as someone who is obsessed as most and about to begin to work on a workshop on Twitter, I have some responses.

As a Composition instructor, I find it interesting to be forced to maintain a response as brief as 140 characters. For high school students whose mentality is that instructors are interested in length (remember when we were in high school and padded pages with 12.5 font and/or 1.1″ margins? I do.), Twitter forces the practice on fighting verbosity in today’s composition. Moreover, Twitter also forces the author to be keenly aware of his or her audience.

Socially, yes, we can simply answer Twitter’s ubiquitous question that we’ve asked each other for decades anyway (how many of you have met up with someone or called and first asked “how’s it going?” before getting down to business?), but there are so many powerful ways to move beyond that “ambience awareness” of one’s day. How often have you been able to see photos (posted on TwitPicNeil Gaiman rolling around in the snow with his husky? Or read about Dave Navarro and his concert going experiences in Jane’s Addiction? Maybe you want to know what Lance Armstrong did today, or what Shaq’s been up to (figuratively).

Neil Gaiman enjoying time outside his home with his dog.

In April 2009, Oprah sent her first tweet from her show, and I ironically was wearing my Eat. Sleep. Tweet. shirt. People looked at me like I’d jumped on some bandwagon and I spent my day tweeting about my Twitter experiences over 18 months. Her publicity coupled with Ashton Kutcher’s race with CNN.com caused an interesting situation to occur for me in the Twittersphere. Before April, I had probably two current high school students want to follow me on Twitter. Both were “cool kids” who I “trusted” with my Tweets, but after that Oprah show, more and more current students began to want to follow me. This really freaked me out because at that time my Twitter audience was not my high school students. (In contrast I made my Facebook profile FOR my students to follow me.) I haven’t really come to a conclusion on the whole student following me on Twitter situation, some I allow and some I don’t, and I ever blocked all updates for a few weeks until things simmered down, but as more and more people jump into Twitter, the more diffused the whole “teacher freak who Twitters with his students” thing becomes.

Posted as part of a Twitter presentation by Chad Richards.

With that said, let’s discuss some of the positives education wise that have emerged from this tool. As I mentioned above, there are “experts” in any field who you can find on Twitter every day. You can follow them (and occasionally they even follow you back!), and sometimes communication emerges that would not necessarily from an email inquiry. In my field, I consider people like Intellagirl and Michael Wesch experts (albeit both are specialized within my field), and I follow both and have actually spent time with both in real life, too. Without Twitter that relationship (virtually) would not have occurred.

People tend to gravitate around certain topics of interest. Mine are “social media” and “instructional technology”. I also teach high school English and tweet about teaching Freshman Comp. I sometimes pick up followers just because of my work, or, other times, I join a new NING and people start following me on Twitter because they stumble over my profile there. A (virtual friend) and colleague Liz B Davis, who I’ve never actually met, aggregated a list of “Educators on Twitter” and as of today (June 6, 2009) there are 765 members. No, I don’t follow them all and they do not all follow me, but the contact data I have at my fingertips is powerful in it’s own right. Another person who I know better but I still consider him an “expert” to be mentioned here (although he is too humble to believe this) is Alan Levine from the New Media Consortium. Here’s a post of his on Twitter, and below is the life cycle of a Twitter addict that he adapted from Kathy Sierra. Very fun stuff.

Alan Levine's twitter life cycle.

What I would define as a collective intelligence that emerges from these “Twitter trees of experts” is what the Time article called “accumulation of authority”. No matter what we call it, our expert groups moved from the saloons of Dorothy Parker, to the list serves, and now to Twitter groups. Want information on anything at all? Ask on Twitter. Sometimes you get several responses within minutes. It’s like the silly old movies when someone asks for a pen or pencil and everyone in the scene shoves one at the simultaneously.

We are not all experts on all topics, but we have experiences and we have ways of collecting information. Sometimes that information includes links. Maybe we see something we want to share, so we post a link. Perhaps someone we follow on Twitter made a profound statement on the world of politics, a new musical, or a must read book. We “reTweet” these, which is a direct attribution and verbatim quote to the original poster (sometimes 2-3 people deep). Other times we don’t want to tell everyone what we have to say, so we send a Direct Message (d twitterid msg). (Sometimes people need to do this more often!) I’d like to point out what Steve Johnson already said about this in the Time article through his metaphor of the toaster oven and microwave. Neither Biz Stone nor Evan Williams, the founders of Twitter, (did you know they are friends with Will Wheaton?) came up with retweets, direct messages, or @ replies? As Johson said in the article, Ev & Biz gave the community the toaster and we made it into a microwave.

I’d like to talk at the idea of the @ sign for a moment here. In my tech circles, the @ID becomes users identity more and more. People don’t know who Sarah Robbins is as much as they know @intellagirl. Cropping up across the USA and into the UK are “Tweetups” where people gather corporeally outside of their meeting on Twitter. No longer do people introduce themselves as, for example, “hi, I am Heather Herr.” But now, when I met her, it clicked faster when she corrected herself, “On Twitter I am @msherr.” THAT person I KNEW! Her real name meant nothing, as for me, some people have no idea who Devon Adams is, but they have seen @nooccar on Twitter. A colleague, Shelley Rodrigo, (@rrodrigo for those of you playing at home), and I have signed entire presentations as devoncadams@gmail and shelleyrodrigo@gmail.com, rather than writing our names more traditionally. Guess what goes on our presentation IDS? You guessed it, just our @IDs. Companies like Tweetup Badges, will even make your group badges for when meeting in public and in person.

We all know the power of Google searches that has continued to gain momentum over the last decade, but have you searched Twitter? Johnson points out that the value of searching within your extended networks may “start to rival Google’s approach to the search”. Now, we will see if Twitter search can ever truly do that, and I am of the opinion that Google will eat Twitter before that happens, but two strong search examples Johnson points out is his article are worth mentioning. “If you’re looking for information on Benjamin Franklin, an essay shared by one of your favorite historians might well be more valuable than the top result on Google; if you’re looking for advice on sibling rivalry, an article recommended by a friend of a friend might well be the best place to start.”

The power of Twitter is that it’s real time. It’s the here and now. I heard about David Carradine’s and Heath Ledger’s death on Twitter within minutes of them being found. I remember when the plane went down in the Hudson River, TwitPic’s were posted of the ferry going to rescue people within minutes (can you even imagine what it would have been like if we had Twitter on April 20, 1999 or September 11, 2001?) According to Johnson, in May 2009 an “anticommunist uprising in Moldova was organized via Twitter. Twitter has become so widely used among political activists in China that the government recently blocked access to it, in an attempt to censor discussion of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.” Also, Twitter is used by CDC like organizations to track flu and health epidemics in urban cities.

As end users, some of us build the better mouse trap by making Twitter more power. We find extraordinary uses for Twitter and many times those uses are by our ME Generation. The innovative ways in which user play and work with Twitter will continually change. The value of the tool mutates, and it’s less about this tool BEING TWITTER than about the key elements of the platform–follower structure (including the @ symbol which has bled out of Twitter into other social media sites), link-sharing and real-time searching. It is like Marc Prensky said at the National Council for Teachers of English keynote in November 2008 in San Antonio, it’s less the noun that matters than the verb. What are the concepts where, rather than the content. Beyond Twitter for the fun of tweeting and calling our followers and friends tweeple or, more courageously, twits, what is the true purpose? Yes, some times it’s cool to see who is doing what, other times you spend more time tweeting than checking your gmail. Even other times, you run across fun tools like “Historic tweets,” which essentially sends out fake tweets from famous situations.

Lincoln asks followers for speechwriting help

But other times, this matters. We, as users, are the, as MIT prof Eric von Hippel puts it, “end-user innovation” where we, as consumers, modify these social networking tools for our own needs. Twitter and the like mutate and change as we find ways to engage the tool to make meaning in our own lives, through our own needs, and within our education

In the late fall semester of 2008 we encouraged the students to move towards an online official lexicon of PJ’s first two Softwire books and his online video game. I was able to procure an advanced copy of the third book at NCTE in November and used it to bribe the students into working faster and more efficiently. By Christmas they had a large chunk of text in the wiki, edited and put together. Two students stood out beyond the others as the shining stars for this project.

Jim’s goal was to present the wiki as a “premier” by the end of the spring semester at ASU. That was tonight. Tonight Jim invited Kerri Mathew, me, PJ, several of my students, Book Babe, media, professors and others to join him in discussing a summer project PJ and his good friend Nathan Fillion of Firefly/Serenity fame are producing, briefly introducing book #4 of The Softwire Series, and then a conglomerate of social media meets literature project of PJ’s.

I spoke at length in this showcase about the wiki, collective intelligence, social media in traditional pedagogical settings, and what the kids accomplished. Two of the students discussed some as well about their role in everything and how they put it all together. PJ explained what he wanted us to still accomplish, and then Jim presented me with consent forms from the publishers who want to publish the lexicon text in the back of the third book’s paperback form. The student and I are very excited about this, and I’ve discussed briefly with Jim how he can showcase some of this at AETA this fall at ASU and my plans to begin to write up and publish my side of this experience.

After a photo shoot and interviews with press and the media manage at ASU’s decision theatre, I headed home. Now the wiki isn’t public yet, but we will be discussing that move shortly between me, PJ and Jim. As for now, I am waiting to get my hands on the manuscript for book #4 this summer.

In the past I’ve always had a no show policy for electronics in my high school English classrooms. This year that opinion has begun to shift. My syllabus clearly states that all mobile phones will be kept away and if I see them at all, then I will confiscate them; I’ve confiscated my fair share of cell phones & iPods over the years. After Christmas break when the gadgets came out, I didn’t say anything. I just waited to see what would happen, and you know what? They were respectful. Occasionally they’d look down, check something, fire off a message and move on. Then came a bigger test. When the questions came, instead of telling them I’d get back to them, looking it up myself, etc… I told them to check for themselves. I got confused looks, but then slowly, they got it. More and more kids got it. They pulled out their mobiles and did research in the classroom.

There are several Web 2.0 tools that I know students can use with mobile technology on their phones (e.g. Utterli, Twitter, Poll Everywhere, etc…) but even I still ask, why bother? What can they do with their phones that they can’t just do when they are there in my classes. I know there are reasons to use these things outside the classroom, but, for example, why text to Poll Everywhere when we’re all sitting in the class? Together? Utterli is cool for our Rhetoric Out on the Town Assignment, and I think I am going to try to use it for that, and it’s great for recording foreign language homework, but why do we use it IN THE CLASSROOM.

Ok so this is the big question, and I’ve not discounted it. I’ve embraced it. Two of my colleagues at the college are studying Mobile Pedagogies this summer, and since this has always been rolling around my interests/issues and I recently fell into an iPod (door prize, conference), I am not the proud owner of an iPod Touch. I do not have AT&T, nor do I have an iPhone, but an iPod Touch gets me everything but the voice and camera. I am going to research and play all summer. Watch for my fall syllabus policies.

Getting ready for the Harold Rheingold, our morning Keynote. He’s thanking the teachers in his life, and said he is from AZ. He’s talking about his relationship with his 5th grade teacher. When he was asked to interview the principal he decided to become a writer. The year after he was sent to Art, and his mother was the teacher. This is where all of the misfits hung out. He began writing by using a typewriter, but then realized there was something called a computer. He bought his first modem in the early 1980s and it cost him $500.00! He hoped to get tons of information online, but there wasn’t much. Instead he found a community.

He realizes that the tools kids use today is far beyond where we were 25 years ago, but these are the descendants of the BBS of 1982. He’s talking about his daughter telling his wife that “Daddy’s talking to his computer again!” When his daughter got to middle school and used search engines to write papers, things clicked. His daughter and the web came of age at the same time. His slides are hilarious with links to Lycos, Alta Vista, and Infoseek. He talked to his daughter about using books to check your facts; putting terms into search engines is not guarantee that what you get back is factual. Authority use to reside in the author and publisher, but not the reader/consumer needs to ask questions about the information you find online.

A critical attitude kids today need when using the web is to always question what they find online. For example, search the name of the author of things. Teach kids critical thinking skills. Rheingold went to his daughter’s school and realized that critical thinking was a way for kids to question their teachers. School is a plot to encourage kids to question authority.

Education media literacy wise is largely happening after school now, or when “the teacher isn’t watching”. These digital natives teach each other, while schools remain a place to stick our kids when we’re at work and where society can train their citizens.

In 1995 we had this fear of internet porn show up. This moral panic over internet sexual predators could’ve led to all ISPs to censor everything down to a 12 year old. The ACLU court hearing where Rheingold testified was shot down fortunately. Kids are pretty good at spotting phonies. The predators are in the neighborhoods in real life, not necessarily online.

Today we have to harness the enthusiasm of children and teens today to develop a public voice that they care about. Media available today from camera phones, laptops, FB, Youtube is where it is today. There is an economic divide but smaller than you think. Even if they don’t have access…we need to get them using it to be successful in the 21st century.

Digital media is continuing to change, and physical public spacing is more and more closed to kids. They are moving political movements online. This is all leading to a broader participatory culture, that include RSS, social bookmarking, video sharing, mashups, etc etc etc… all have 3 common characteristics. All broadcast & receive from and to everyone, the are all social where power comes from the people and they enable faster, cheaper collective action. He said computers are mind amplifiers. Young people creative as well as consume online. They are no longer passive… they seek, adopt, appropriate and invent.

What is new is that the population of digital natives carry mobile devices, know how to use them and the internet is NOT a transformative new tech. It’s always been there like water and electricity. This all comes natural to them. Internet media is not a disengagement, and he doesn’t think they are disengaged. This is powerful tool to engage in their own voices with issues they care about. The net lets them connect to things they care about. Teachers can show them how to use these tools, contest claims, organize, etc… Media production differs from other sorts of products that have the power to persuade, power, educate, inspire movements, civilizations, etc… He’s talking about Jenkin’s new work about teaching to the 21st century. There’s a shift to how our community now works.

When his daughter came home from school, she didn’t like school because they rang bells, lined kids up in rows, etc… He has now been teaching how to been more of a community, a rhetoric of blogging. Check out http://www.socialtext.net/medialiteracy.

What does civic engagement mean to us today? I think this is the largest question that he is asking of us and we’re asking of our administrators. This is the question, and people aren’t looking to this question. They aren’t thinking globally. They are thinking about standards, objectives and not leaving those kids behind. This is the wrong way to go about things.

Rheingold’s discussing http://socialmediaclassroom.com/ his website. This is a site to review, check, and engage in. When he began talking about social media, message boards and blogs flattened authority in the classroom. Create wireless creative classroom circles. There is no back row in a circle! Rheingold teach social media, so he can’t ask the students to turn off the computers…so we have to work around issues of authority in the classroom.

Don’t just keep up with the technologies. Keep up with the literacies. Beautiful. Pure beauty.

Over Spring Break of this year, the boy, John, asked me to edit his college essay. He was ready to go to college: Berkeley. One of the best liberal colleges in the west. He wants to be a rhetorician, and people like me know what that means. I edited his letter. Same week Alexis contacts me. She applied for study abroad during her junior year of Smith. She is studying British Lit (which happens to be my undergrad, too), and she was just accepted to Oxford University! John emails me the next day, the essay I helped edit got him into Berkeley on a full ride! These kids make me so proud, and I get the warm and fuzzies when they blame me for their accomplishments. Yes, I write letters. Yes, I push them more than almost anyone. Yes, I CARE. But they have to want it, too.

A few days later, I got a package from Wine.com. Inside are two bottles of wine (the second is for his “other favorite English teacher”, Liza, who also edited his essay). He sent these from Napa for us. It’s nice when we’re appreciated. Another boy Facebooked (yes, I made it a verb) today and told me that I am a great teacher, that he learned more in my class a few years ago than in any other, and that he was sorry he didn’t live up to his potential then. He also told me he was recently hired by NBC to work on the HEROES television show. Go figure.

Here’s some shots of the wine from Napa. Cheers.