Apace of Change

The verdict is in: this past semester’s Twitteracy Project was a bust.
To put it succinctly, I think the two main roadblocks were 1) the technology at home and 2) student motivation. Many kids reported problems even being able to log in to Twitter from home, let alone send messages. I suggested they upgrade [...]

After my initial attempt to set up a Twitter-based personal learning network for my students was foiled by Captcha-blind laptops, I set up 26 student accounts from home. The following Wednesday, I came to class armed with usernames and passwords. I even had a Powerpoint of usernames to cycle through on our projection [...]

So I had it all planned out.
My school’s filtering scheme doesn’t block Twitter, and I’ve tried Tweeting from school via both Twitterfox and the website. Good to go.
Dramatis personae: Sophomores, 15 and 16 years old. Familiar with IM and chat rooms, intrigued, if slightly confused, by the screenshot of a Twitter timeline I [...]

In an earlier comment, Bud says the same thing I’d likely say, were I reading this on someone else’s blog:
Interested to see what you do. Convince me that there’s a need that Twitter fills in the classroom. I love Twitter – but I’m concerned – I see people forcing its use for no particular reason [...]

Wow – a single Tweet from Will with a link here brought something like 60 unique hits. Now I feel obligated to actually go through with this! (I kid, I kid)
I think the best way to start this off is with a clear statement of what this classroom implementation of Twitter is (or [...]