Teaching an old dog new tweets

In this week’s installment of “Queen of the Code Monkeys: Sleepless Nights,” I proffer a not-so-quick-n-dirty reference for that most-burgeon-y-of-burgeoning-social-networks, Twitter.  I also make some specific suggestions about how Twitter could actually be of use of in a classroom setting.  To be honest my tone will be at times aggressive, a response to all the pre-backlash positing and posturing by folks derailing Twitter given its popularity explosion in 2008. Rest assured.  Twitter has been a positive experience and tons of fun for me.  This post is affectionately dedicated and directed to my college mentor, “Doc” (names have been changed to protect the somewhat-innocent).   I recently managed to con him into joining the Twitterscape. *much maniacal laughing and evil hand-wringing*

Bwahahahahaha!

Ahem.

In regards to Twitter (let’s get this out of the way shall we?)…

<Insert typical commentary on Twitter as sometimes bastion of banality>

<Insert typical commentary on Twitter going to the dogs now that everyone-and-their-mother-and-that-pop-star-what’s-her-name twitters>

<Insert other typical commentary consisting of bullshit reasons not to use Twitter>

We good?  Alright.

So what is Twitter?

Updating my status on Facebook.

Well, if you know of or obsess about Facebook, you can think of Twitter as nothing but collected status updates from you and your friends.If you’re a blogger, think of it as another micro-blogging service.

If you’re just confused, Twitter is a service through which each member posts answers to the following question, “What are you doing right now?”

Twitter: Answer this question

At least that’s the intention.  Basic usage entails signing up for a free membership at http://www.twitter.com and then just plinking away in the “Update” box.  In practice anything goes, from the most mundane (“Brushing my teeth”) to the most fucking-out-there-doesn’t-make-sense (“Feeling my id and superego bicker like Bones and Spock over innate, quasi-Jungian beliefs I have over the existence of  monkey head cheese.”).  Some folks will link interesting articles, sites, videos, etc.  Some folks will post updates about their personal and work projects, blogs, businesses, etc.  There are a lot of supposed “rules” on the Proper Way to Twitter.  I say do whatever the Hell you like.  Two polite points: #1 (this is the real important bit) Be prepared to take responsibility for what you say (obvious caveat so no one points fingers at me for bad influence).  #2 Por favor be mindful that not everyone will be interested in every time your incontinent pup has to urinate in your shoe.

Now for a few terms…

Each post/update that you make is called a tweet.  I’ve heard the act of posting/updating alternately referred to as tweeting or twittering.  You could call one who twitters a twitterer.  Tweets are a maximum of 140 characters.  If you want to link a website in your tweet and cannot fit the whole URL, go to tinyurl.com, is.gd, bit.ly, or tr.im.  These sites provide URL-shortening services that generate an alias for your URL that is generally much shorter than the original.  With bit.ly and tr.im you can post directly to Twitter.  Trés handy.

A few tweets from my Twitter homepage.

Using bit.ly to shorten a link

You make connections to other users by following them.  If you follow a user, you will receive their updates in your timeline, the stream of collected tweets on your Twitter homepage.  If he/she or anyone else follows you, they are your follower.  Followers = friends.

I'm following

Lots of followers

You may choose to protect your updates: make them visible only to people you approve.  If you don’t protect them, your updates will appear on the public timeline (the stream of every Twitterers tweets) and be in plain sight on your twitter homepage: www.twitter.com/<username>.

You can respond to someone else’s tweet with an @reply.  To @reply to another user’s tweets, type “@<username>” at the beginning of your tweet.  If someone writes an @reply to you and you are following them, you will see the @reply in your home timeline.  If you don’t follow them, you will still be able to see it in your @Replies tab.  In regards to @replies that you make, anyone who can see your tweets can see them.

@replying

If you want to privately message someone instead, you can send a direct message.  Just start the message with “d <username>”, and that update will be sent only to the recipient.  Please note, as was recently brought to my attention, that you can only direct message someone who already follows you.

Direct messaging

While not a technical feature, a common action on Twitter is retweeting another person’s tweet: re-posting someone else’s tweet with the proper credit.  Personally, I will do the following: “RT @<person who posted the tweet-in-question> : <tweet-in-question>.”

Now you don’t have to do all this business on twitter.com.  You can also download a twitter client, basically a desktop program or mobile application that provides you access to Twitter.  Generally, clients allow you to see the public timeline, to see your own timeline, to update, to @reply, and to direct message.  Often they have additional features such as automated retweeting, URL shortening, and posting pics directly to TwitPic (explained in two minutes).  Some common desktop clients include Twitterific, Twhirl, and TweetDeck.  For mobile users, you have Tweetie (and several other clients) on the iPhone and TwitterBerry on Blackberries.

Twitterrific

Twhirl

If you’re away from your desktop and don’t have a smartphone, you can just send updates via text messages.  In Twitter’s settings you can associate a mobile number with your Twitter username.  Then all you need to do is just send a message to 40404.  You can even @reply and direct message as normal.

Extra, fun stuff…

Twitter Search: A search engine for tweets.

TwitPic: TwitPic is a photo-sharing site that links directly into Twitter.  You can upload a photo and a small comment to TwitPic, and TwitPic updates your Twitter timeline with a link to the photo and your comment.   TwitPic uses your Twitter credentials and allows you to upload photos directly.  Many clients integrate TwitPic as a feature.  You can also setup an email address on TwitPic for uploading.

Hashtags: Hashtags are text strings in tweets prefixed with “#”.  If you go to hashtags.org and type a string into the search box, hashtags.org will return a timeline of tweets that contain “#<search term>”.  For example, one popular hashtag (known as twemes or “twitter memes” on twemes.com) is #firstjob.  Write a tweet about your first job, make sure you add the hashtag #firstjob somewhere, and update.   When someone searches on #firstjob on hashtag.org, your tweet will appear in the timeline.  Some hashtags act as themes for tweets in the Twitterscape like #firstjob.  Often folks attending conferences will mark all of their updates with some hashtag to mark conference-relevant tweets, e.g. #adobemax (Adobe MAX), #bwe08 (Blog World 2008) #mwsf09 (Macworld 2009), #ted (TED).  To be able to use hashtags, first follow @hashtags.  Afterwards, just place any “#<string>” you desire into your tweets.  No need to register your actual hashtags or anything like that.  As I passingly mentioned a second ago, Twemes.com allows you to view tweets associated with hashtags.  It also provides you with code for a widget to embed on your website.  The widget displays the latest tweets falling under a particular tweme/hashtag.

Macworld 2009 @ hashtags.org

There are many other Twitter-related services.  Too many to name here.  So I won’t.

If you’re intimidated, don’t be.  Be as simple, as shallow, as complex, as involved, as serious, as funny, as ridiculous, as ineffable as you can/want/need to be.  Use Twitter for whatever the Hell you please.  Have public conversations/chats with friends.  Gripe about your boss (perhaps anonymously would be best).  Post stuff you find funny, interesting, outrageous.  Let your husband/wife/anyone-else-reading-your-timeline know that “Timmy wants Batman fruit snacks, please get some on the way home, kthxbye.”  Become an impromptu realtime reporter at the event of your choice or reveal the deviantly dark devastation residing inside your mind.  Just keep it to 140 characters…you know, per darkly ruminated revelation.

So here’s a specific idea (for Doc or anyone else interested in Twitter + class; otherwise, skip down to the bottom if so desired)…

So this was my idea for the Doc or any other professor-ly types: use your Twitter account as a way to keep your students updated on class news.  Let them know you’ll post updates, exam dates, links to project descriptions, links to homework answers via Twitter.  I’ve seen in way too many classes that the class sites don’t have up-to-date information because professors can’t (don’t have time), don’t (absent-minded types) or won’t (as in “Pfft, not worth my intellectually rich time.”) update.  Others keep editing static HTML pages when they really should use some kind of posting/messaging framework *cough*Doc*cough*.  To be clear I am not advocating Twitter as a substitute for the class site, just suggesting Twitter as an enhancement to the static information.

Encourage your students to sign up for Twitter and ask questions about the class by @replying you and/or using an agreed upon hashtag (such as #ENGLISH101).  If you can answer in 140 words or less, @reply them back.  Else @reply a link to a long-form answer that you post on the class website.  Of course, this excludes questions of a personal nature (grades, concerns, etc) or the case where students would simply rather not ask publicly.  Still other students reading your timeline will have the benefit of seeing others’ questions, and maybe they’ll respond back with their thoughts and answers (not to graded homework questions pleeeease), generate their own questions, or engage in debates.

If you have a lot of non-class activity on your twitter, consider creating a teaching-specific username.

Also, students don’t have to go to hashtags.org or search.twitter.com and each time.  They can either bookmark “http://hashtags.org/tag/<your class tag here>” or subscribe to the Atom feed provided on that page.  Or you can just grab a Twemes widget and post it up on the class site.

And if you have any neat events or projects in class, snap some pics with a camera phone and post ‘em on TwitPic for others to enjoy.

Introduction to Engineering (a cross-engineering-disciplines class for learning basic engineering concepts and methods) frequently challenges engineering Freshmen to build hovercrafts (not model hovercrafts mind you but real piece-it-together-from-what-you-can-acquire-stuff) and race them.  Play the realtime reporter.  Post the winners with a little grandiosity and fanfare.  Make it fun.  Share it with everyone including those outside of the University.

Alright, the rest of you still there?  To wrap up…

Seriously, take what people will say about Twitter, prescribe in regards to its use, or predict about itself downfall with a grain of salt.  Its just another lump of the oh-so-proverbial clay coming out of the Tubes.  Make it what you want it to be.  Connect.  Share.  Entertain.  Inform.  Whatever.

Have fun.