Thing 21

Twitter name: mlknee (Stands for My Left Knee... I would tell you the back story, but I've already reached my 140 character limit!)

When twitter first rolled out onto the tech scene, I thought really?!  A whole site dedicated to just petty and uninteresting facebook status style messages??  Seemed like another self-indulgent, look at me!!, what I'm doing is more exciting than you!, site.  But after about a week of using twitter, I'm ashamed to say that I actually like it.  Making my tweets private and choosing who to follow, limits down the number of people to those you actually want to hear from.  It's a different way to communicate and a fun way to talk/badger your friends!  I do like microblogging.  The character limit makes things short and sweet and you also get a sneak peek into the lives of your coworkers outside of the normal 9-5 window and learn more about them along the way. 

The project term trips that used twitter to post updates and the Chicago trip last year were great ways to bring the followers along on the trip.  I have been thinking of the possibilities when we travel to Toronto, but I'm not sure about the roaming and data charges.  The telephone tree just seems so outdated now!  Would twitter or text messages be a better way to communicate with parents?  We usually start the phone tree to let them know that we arrived to Toronto safely and another to let them know when we're about an hour away from school.  But sometimes it's a hassle when the first couple of people don't answer and you're left with the duty to keep calling until you reach someone.  Not to mention a rip off in roaming charges.  Any suggestions?

I think my nephew should get a twitter account (updated by his parents).  Since he's the first child/grandchild/nephew, everyone always wants to know what he's up to.  We don't care how stupid it is... what he ate, how much he slept, what he threw a tantrum over are all interesting things to us!  A twitter update from his account of "I think green beans look better on the floor than in my mouth" is always amusing!  It would save my sister more time since she won't have to email or answer our phone calls separately... she can reach us all with one update!  More convincing is needed though =).   

The #hashtag option is a great way to categorize tweets as well.  I saw this being used/abused by some people twittering their every move at a recent conference!  I'll have to spend more time with twitter to see how I can use it professionally.  From colleague to colleague, it's a great way to swap articles or posts relating to the education field, but in terms of using it with the student or parent population remains to be seen.  That's a whole other field that needs some consideration.

See you on twitter!