Thing 5: Microblogging

Just found this twitter from Joyce Valenza that seems a propos to our discussion:
joycevalenzaClay Shirky's TED--How Twitter Can Change History http://bit.ly/9JbOd
According to Shirky, China is trying to hide unrest, but because media is produced locally, by amateurs, quickly, and in abundance, it can no longer be effectively filtered. Shirkey states that media is global, social, ubiquitous and cheap. It is no longer IF we want to operate in this environment but HOW we will adapt to it.

I have facebook and twitter accounts already which, frankly, I don't use much. I am afraid I am still more of a consumer of media than a producer of media. I am still more private than transparent in my worldview. I do enjoy keeping up with my college kids in a less obtrusive, casual way. I personally found twitter4teachers very helpful to get started finding people to follow.

I think the idea of backchanneling is amazing. I've never participated in that kind of activity. That would free teachers to stimulate critical thinking if simple questions are answered on the spot by peers or moderators. I think every speaker tries to feel the pulse of the audience and this would help. Phones are banned at our school, but students still manage to text under the table. I'm thinking that a moderated backchannel on Tiny Chat would be a more productive activity, kind of like "If you can't beat them, join them."