I know for the most part I would have to answer probably not. But I'm going to try to find ways to do better.

So I pose the question? How do you find time? How do you make sense of all that is going on in your field? With your interests, etc? Comment below and let's help ECG other out! Thanks!

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Why do you follow someone on twitter? I've thought about that a lot as I have made decisions about who I should follow and who I won't follow. Usually, I am quite liberal in following people who follow me. If they have similar interests then I figure we might be able to help each other out. They may share things that interest me and viceversa. Also we might be able to give each other feedback on our own writings and thinking.

Yet when I have seen other posts in the past on this kind of topic, it is usually very focused on self interest. Advice on who to follow is mostly based on looking out for number one, figuring out what is in it for you, etc. I don't think we can be completely alturistic, but at the same time is self-interest the one or most important factor. Yes, our time, like our money, is a limited resource. Yes, we want to get the best value we can (most bang for the buck or meat for the minute, as it were). But does that always come from what others can do for us? I think we can get a lot more out of our relationships and our learning networks if we focus on what we can give than what we can get... As we share our learning with others, help someone in need of some feedback, share our thoughts in answer to an inquiry, give of ourselves, we'll ultimatley get more out of our learning networks. In other words, you get more from what you give than what you take.

If we don't have a more other-centric view of learning in networks, I don't think it will work the way we planned. Just as in any relationship, if all we do is take then soon there won't be anybody there for us to take from.

If you stumble upon this post and have read this far, thank you for your time. I apologize for a bit of a rant. But I'd love to hear your thoughts. Why do you follow who you do? How do you contribute to make your network followers and friends better for having followed you?

Happy Holidays (of which Christmas and Thanksgiving are my favorites)!

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Although life might be too hectic to always be thoughtful (in some thongs we may need to be automatic), I think Andy's advice is important. In things that matter, we need to be purposeful, thoughtful, reflective, practice our guts out and get feedback from trusted sources. This applies to all aspects of life. Don't live on auto-pilot!

Sent from my iPhone

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Sights and sounds of TTIX 2010. This year they held it at the University of Utah.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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I have been challenged to post two paragraghs from the Tin Angel
restaurant. I am not sure why. However, it will help me with the Grand
Poobah of Social Media competition.

The dinner has been fun so far. Suzy Cox let me use her iPhone to post
this. That was really cool of her. A lot of us are doing dumb things
to earn points in the competition. What fun!

__________________________________________________________________________

Update: I got to sing La Bamba with the band Rockatonga at the restaurant tonight... a video might be forthcoming!

Also, as you can see below, I was chastised for not making a meaningful comment about the dinner at Tin Angel.

Well, now I am. The food was awesome! The people were great. I made a lot of connections with people and got to know others better. As I said, others were really helpful with my quest for Social Media Grand-Poobah-ness.

Conferences are fun, but I find that it is meal time when you have a chance to make connections that last! I have connections with people from TTIX and other conferences that have really been beneficial (hopefully mutually). Without TTIX for example, I wouldn't know Marc Hugentobler (the chastiser). And he's got a great hair do!

For me connections is just as important a part of conferences as the actual sessions and keynotes. Maybe more important. And trying to attend social events is a great way to make those connections (though if you aren't sharing significant stuff in the conference then something vital is missing).

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Finally, the day is winding down... I was up until 4:00 last night putting final touches on my TTIX presentation for today. It was a fast paced 55 slides in 25 minute affair. But that was kind of on purpose. I wanted to present a lot of ideas to get people thinking. I wanted to help them see that there really are "moral consideration when teaching and learning with technology". I have posted my slides on Slideshare.net and am embedding them here (I've already posted the video of my presentation):

Nancy White was the key note address and she presented on some deep issues related to learning as individual and in communities and groups. She discussed the implications of these different approaches or views of learning in an interesting way, I wish I could capture it better. If you want to see her address, check this out: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7565443

I attended Jeni Gubler's session (not just because it was right before mine. She spoke about students' perspectives on technology use and how practice using technology changes the focus from teachers to students. Her presentation can be viewed here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7566730

I should have gotten more out of it, but I was a little preoccupied (since I was next up to present). People loved her presentation, however. She took more many questions from the participants than I did.

After a fun lunch with friends and colleagues, I attended a session on Google Apps for education by James Covili. It was a good session, most of it I was already familiar with, though I didn't attend the second hour only because I wanted to attend the session on TwHistory, which I did. To view this session, go here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7569622

The session on TwHistory was conducted by Tom Caswell, Marion Jensen, and Rob Barton. They have passion for their work and it shows. We helped participate in a Twitter reenactment of the sinking of the Titanic. We did a little bit of research and then wrote s few tweets and used socialoomph (http://www.socialoomph.com/) to schedule tweets. I knew services like this existed, but it was fun to actually use it and participate. I missed the first session where they explained the background, but you can view their Prezi presentation here: http://prezi.com/vyozk6gzgnd1/twhistory-ttix-2010/. Also, they have  site http://twihistory.org/ and twitter account (http://twitter.com/twhistory). You can see the recording of their presentation here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7569687

There were a bunch of other sessions that I want to catch up on, you can check them out from here: http://www.ustream.tv/user/ttix/videos 

Great conference so far, and best of all it is Free!

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Here is the video of my presentation this morning at TTIX 2010

If you have problems viewing this, here is a link to the video on uStream:http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7567030

If you have a chance to watch, let me know what you liked and what could be improved.

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I was reading the following post on Twiducate: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2010/06/twiducate.html by David Kapuler (@dkapuler) and I got to thinking, is Twiducate a good idea?

• What are the costs of a "closed network"? Do students miss out on the richness of interacting with those outside their usual circles (I hear stories all the time of students blogging about a book or article only to have the author comment on their post... in a "closed" network things like this don't happen. Also, students we have surveyed like the idea of gleaning from and contributing to their field of knowledge, do we lose that?)
• Perhaps it is a great idea for elementary or middle schools but are we just avoiding the security, privacy, safety, and other related issues to working on the networked world if we are in a "protected environment" in high school or post secondary settings for students to deal with when they are on their own?
• Do FERPA issues come into play that make this a good idea despite other costs (loss of the benefits of open networks)

A couple of friends and colleagues Jon Mott (@jonmott) and Dave Wiley (@opencontent) wrote about the potential for a combination of cms's and open networks that allow institutions to control information that needs to be private and open up everything else (see http://ineducation.ca/article/open-learning-cms-and-open-learning-network), would that work?

I certainly see Twiducate as a huge step up over banning social media outright, which occurs or is being considered in some school districts. For some great posts on this issue see "Deal or No Deal?" by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) and "Banning is the Easy Way Out" by Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal), but is there still a cost? Is the cost too high? I'd love to get more informed opinions, so please comment below!

Honestly, I applaud the efforts of Twiducate for trying to solve some very real problems... I am just wondering out loud.

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It occurred to me today that there maybe a connection and a problem with networked learning that may be very similar to the problems I have seen with network marketing. To be clear, I am not talking about marketing through social media channels, rather I am talking about multi-level marketing or idea that some companies have where you not only sell their product but you recruit other people to be a part of your sales organization, as you do so you get a portion of the profits those in your organization bring in. If you can recruit enough people to your organization some of these companies promise wealth untold (I am not naming names here, but they know who they are). I am not an expert on this, but the problem I see is that within a very short period of time and within a few levels of doing this you either run out of resources (the profits are spread too thin), you run out of people to sell to, and/or select few are overly compensated for the work of many (but that happens all over the place). 

If everyone were in a social network, could it truly be sustainable. Usually a few people in your network will look over something you want feedback on, but as the network grows larger will they have time. Another possibility is that you personally will feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff to read, view, respond to, etc. that you cannot find the good stuff. Will a small number, because they produce the best stuff or were more established in the network and so forth, benefit from the network while late comers and/or those needing more help and encouragement not get the help they need due to the limited human resources and over abundance of work produced in the network.

I am an advocate for learning networks. However, I also want to be able to see and understand the potential pitfalls or challenges so we can work overcome them.  The above contains a couple of issues (overload of info and people to provide feedback to, etc.) are some that I see. If someone has successfully address these concerns, please let me know. I would love to hear your feedback on this post! Also what other challenges do you see people facing when trying to learning in a PLN?

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Dave Wiley (@opencontent) explained the model they used to create and run the Open High School of Utah (@OpenHSofUtah). It is really quite simple (though not easy). It is very much a tutor model (hence we are discussing this in our #byu2sigma class on Bloom's 2 Sigma problem). Tutors provide a couple of main functions:

1. Information provision --> OHSU uses online curriculum using Open Educational Resources (OERs)
2. Diagnostics --> OHSU uses data analysis dashboard (provides data for both improvements of information/instruction and which students need more help)
3. Q/A, help, support --> OHSU uses teacher one-on-one visits with students (actual tutoring)

I hope I didn't give away the farm, but they hope to see improved performance over traditional educational models for a lot less money. Good luck, if it works out I might enroll my children!

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Just learned this little trick, a embed a Google Doc into a wave so you can edit the document in the wave (you still have to share it with the members of the wave if you want them to be able to edit the document, by the way)!

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IPT564-TABLE.xlsx Download this file

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I am not the first to write on this topic (for example, see Resources & References below), nor will I likely be the last. At the risk of sounding like a media-centric designer (Gibbons, 2003), I want to share some thoughts and resources regarding the educational potential of Twitter.

A Little about Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging application. Micro-blogging is like blogging but your posts are limited to 140 characters in length (called "tweets"). There are also several other subtle differences. This video explains some of the basics of Twitter (I really like Common Craft’s “In Plain English” series, by the way!):

Here are some things you should know to interact on Twitter:

• SMS (Short Message Standard – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS) is the standard that Twitter uses… this allows you to send and receive tweets from your cellphone (if you need to know more ask someone more techno-saavy than myself!).
• @username: used to reply (especially if used at the beginning of a tweet) or mention another person in the Twiterverse.
• Retweets – use RT at the beginning of a tweet to pass on something someone else already tweeted (followed by a mention of the person), although Twitter has a new retweet function (some people hate how the retweet functionality works, but it doesn’t cost you any characters, which is nice). Any way, a retweet is kind of like a compliment (usually).
• D for Direct message (but you can just go to the Direct Message area to send as well. Direct messages are more private (but don’t really plan on privacy, although you can lock your tweets).
• Hashtags (# followed by a word) can be use to tag a tweet. Hash tags are used to create a back channel or conversation on a topic/event, etc. and facilitate searching, for example to look up tweets about things the character Monk often says you can search for #Monkisms.
• URL Shorteners: Although not officially a part of Twitter, bit.ly and tinyurl.com, etc. come in handy. Some URLs can take up more than your 140 characters so shortening comes in handy! (this is often built into many Twitter Clients)
• Lists: A way to organize those you follow however you want. Say you want to follow those who research social media you could create a list and add people to your list (you don’t even have to follow them). You can also follow others lists (and others can follow yours). For example, I have a pretty fun list regarding college football: http://twitter.com/#/list/michaelcjohnson/college-football (see socialmediatoday for an article by Harry Hoover on uses of Twitter lists: http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/162925)
• Twitter Clients: Allow you to manage your twitter account (and often other social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn). Examples include Tweetdeck, HootSuite, etc. And there are many such apps that are available for your mobile phone.

You can also form groups through Apps like Twibes (http://twibes.com) but that is a subject for another day…

Educational Uses of Twitter

For Teaching (In and out of the Classroom)

• Engaging students in discussions in large group classes
• Conduct out of class discussions
• Using as a backchannel during lecture
• Polling
  
• Providing students additional resources and current event related to course topic (an idea from my boss Larry Seawright)
• Sharing learning experiences across distances in small manageable chunks
• Summarizing/synthesize articles or other media precisely
• Word a Day in New Language (or to expand native language vocabulary)
• Help connect Students with people of other languages, viewpoints, perspectives, etc.
• And so forth…

For Learning (Personal Learning Environments- PLEs/Professional Development)

• Researching a topic (search for topics, ask questions of your followers, use a hastag to broadcast to users looking at the same topic, etc.)
  
• Creating a learning network (follow and be followed by people with similar interests)
  
• Sharing of articles and other media relevant to course topic
• Asking questions
• Seeking help or advise on a project (from Clif Mims)
• Requesting and sharing resources
• Sharing blog posts
• Following leading thinkers in your field
• Sharing what you are learning in a course, at a conference, etc.
• Reflecting on your learning (Educause, 7 Things You Should Know about Twitter)
• Taking notes in class (see Using Twitter for Educational Purposes)
  
• And so forth…

Here is a presentation from Tom Barret @tombarret on 29 educational uses of Twitter (there are some gems in here):

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_118cfb8msf8 (Here is the direct link to the above presentation!)

And here are some great ideas from Steve Wheeler on educational uses of Twitter:

Educations Projects/Initiatives

Here are a couple of educational projects I am aware of that use Twitter, if you know of others let me know and I will add them:

• http://temporaltues.blogspot.com/ #temporaltuesday @Wendell_Howe
• http://twhistory.com/ @TwHistory (also see @tom4cam who is one of the ones leading this effort).

Tools

Twitter Clients:

• Tweetdeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/)
• Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com/)
• Tweetie (http://www.atebits.com/)
• Twiterfeed (http://twitterfeed.com/)
• Seesmic (http://seesmic.com/)

Accessories:

• Tinychat (http://tinychat.com/)
• Twitlonger (http://www.twitlonger.com/)
• Twtpoll (http://twtpoll.com/)
• Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/) URL shortner

For more twitter related tools, see Top 100 Tools for Twittering Teacher (from Best Colleges Online).

Concluding Thoughts

Twitter, although on the surface is quite simple – post a thought in 140 characters or less, it can be a quite powerful teaching and learning tool. However, I would encourage teachers, instructional designers, and learners alike to be thoughtful about using Twitter or any technology. Technology for technology’s sake is seldom a good idea. It could be argued that the need to learn to use Twitter might be enough of a reason to use it or because microblogging can be engaging. I am not telling you what reasons are good enough. But if Twitter is the right tool for the job, I think it can be powerful…

References & Resources

• Using Micro-blogging (Twitter) in Teaching and Learning (Stride Handbook on eLearing -chapter 21 by Any Ramsden - PDF)
• Teaching with Twitter (by Steve Wheeler on his Learning with e's Blog)
• Twitter: A Teaching and Learning Tool (by Tom Barret)
• 29 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom (also by Tom Barret) 
• What Does Your Hashtag Use Say About You? 16 Resources (by Shelly Terrell)
• Twitter in Education (by Cliff Mims)
  
• Why Twitter? (by Clif Mims) 
• Posts recommended by Clif Mims:
  • Twitted Tweets and Young Learners 
  • Twits are (not?) for Kids
  • Twitter – Meaningful or Trivial -Up to the Writer
  • A Professor’s Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom (from the Chronicle of Higher Ed)
  • Plan, Tweet, Teach, Tweet, Learn, Smile (by Tom Barret) 
  • Twitter for Academia 
• 7 Things You Should Know about Twitter (Educause)  
• 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom (Online Colleges)
• Teaching with Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart (from The Chronicle) 
• Can Twitter Improve Student Writing? (from The Chronicle)
• Twitter (from INSITE project @ Purdue University)
• How to Live Tweet a Conference (from Inflexion Advisors)
  
• Teaching with Tech (from US News) 
• Ten Tips for Teaching with New Media (Tip #8 Open a Back Channel)
• Twitter for Educator (Barbara Schroeder on educational uses of twitter. She shares 10 ideas on using it in your class and a little about how to use twitter) 
• Twitter Tweets for Higher Education (from the Web 2.0 Teaching Tools blog)
• Using Twitter as an Educational Tool (By Ron Jones) 
• Six Educational Uses of Twitter (from Mollybob Goes to School blog)
• Professor Encourages Students to Pass Notes During Class -- via Twitter  (example of Back Channels from The Chronicle of Higher Education) 
• How to Present with Twitter (and other Backchannels) (by Olivia Mitchell, free eBook in PDF) 
• Some General Comments on the “Twitter” Experiment (University of Texas)
• More than Chirping on Twitter: Top 10 things Teachers are Doing on Twitter (Englishclub.com)
• A Guide to Teaching on Twitter (by Angela Alcorn)
• 50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Education (by Carol Cooper-Taylor)
• 100 Ways to Teach with Twitter (from EmergingEdTech this posts links to some of the other posts listed here as well as offering some additional ideas)
• Teaching with Twitter (video) 
• 5 Benefits of Twitter Chats (Social Media University Global)
•  3 Steps to Joining or Leading Twitter Chats (Social Media University Global) 
• How to Start and Run a Successful Twitter Chat (Mashable)
•  Twitter Guide Book (Mashable) 
• Benefits of Running Polls on Twitter (From socialmediatoday by Lee Odden)
• 8 Ways to Use Twitter Lists (Also from socialmediatoday an article by Harry Hoover) 
• 14 Days of Twitter Part One: “I Hate Twitter” (by Nicole Melander)
•  6 Examples of Using Twitter in the Classroom (from Emerging Ed Tech Blog)
• 7 Ways to Put Twitter to Work for You (from Higher Ed Morning) 
• Learning in 140 - Characters Bites (PDF) 
• Top 100 Tools for Twittering Teacher (from Best Colleges Online)  
• Teaching Tweeting (from University of Maryland's student newspaper)
• Twitter Handbook for Teachers (by Tomaz Lasic) http://www.scribd.com/doc/14062777/Twitter-Handbook-for-Teachers
• Can We Use Twitter for Education Activities? (Gabriela Grosseck & Carmen Holotescu) http://www.scribd.com/doc/2286799/Can-we-use-Twitter-for-educational-activities
• Using Microblogging in Education (Carmen Holotescu & Gabriela Grosseck)  http://www.scribd.com/doc/8551345/Using-microblogging-in-education-Case-Study...
• Using Twitter for Educational Purposes

How have you used Twitter in your courses/classes? Share your ideas for using Twitter … or if you know of any exceptional resources that are not listed here, please share! Especially of interest would be studies that show that using Twitter really helped improve students’ learning experience!

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The National Science Foundation commissioned a Task Force to look at Cyberlearning... Here is a link to the report: www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08204/nsf08204.pdf

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First, let me say that I really don't like the term "eLearning," (for reasons that I won't go into here) but I did like this article: "eLearning 2.0" by Stephen Downes ( see: http://www.downes.ca/post/31741 ).

So, I believe he is saying that virtual communities of practice that form naturally are more real and approach what Wenger was talking about better than contrived "communities" put together in classes. That may be true. but does it have to be? If people come together to with a common purpose and the instructor allows the students freedom to explore what is important to them then I would hope that this kind of community can develop even in formal educational settings. Relevance is a key issue here!

It is also a place to receive and give feedback. I believe that one of the things that learners need to have to be prepared for learning in this space (social media or web 2.0) is the ability to evaluate, to give good feedback. Additionally, to be able to receive feedback constructively.

I like the idea of students passing on their work to be fodder for someone else's learning. In this way we change to from a learner to a learner/teacher! (See Dillon Inouye's work and Comments from John Seeley Brown)

I still think part of the challenge is how to learn. How to wade through a sea of all that is out there and "learn from the best" that is available. Find, organize, evaluate, analyze, synthesize, as well as create. I agree with Chris Lott (@fncll) that creativity is vital! (I am just not so sure that it is a non-starter to say that we should be moral first...though it could be argued that we should become moral through the creative process).

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As BYU CTL's YouTube description declares:

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