what is TWitter (wikipedia)

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 300 million users as of 2011,generating over 300 million tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day.

The short format of the tweet is a defining characteristic of the service, allowing informal collaboration and quick information sharing that provides relief from rising email and IM fatigue. Twittering is also a less gated method of communication: you can share information with people that you wouldn't normally exchange email or IM messages with, opening up your circle of contacts to an ever-growing community of like-minded people.

You can send your messages using the Twitter website directly, as a single SMS alert, or via a third-party application such as Twirl, Snitter, or the Twitterfox add-on for Firefox. (See below for links toTwitter tools and applications). Your tweets are displayed on your profile page, on the home page of each of your followers, and in the Twitter public timeline (unless you disable this in your accountsettings.

P/s :tajuk jurnal saya adalah about TWittER. so jangan marah kalau bace sumenye fakta2 Twitter ok. heHe

thanxx readers :D

Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence

To be truly effective, online learning must facilitate the social process of learning. This involves providing space and opportunities for students and faculty to engage in social activities. Although learning management systems offer several tools that support social learning and student engagement, the scope, structure, and functionality of those tools can inhibit and restrain just-in-time social connections and interactions. In this teaching tip, we describe our use of Twitter to encourage free - flowing just-in-time interactions and how these interactions can enhance social presence in online courses. We then describe instructional benefits of Twitter, and conclude with guidelines for incorporating Twitter in online courses.

Keywords:
Social Presence, Teaching Presence,Cognitive Presence, Online Learning,Twitter,Social Interaction,Microblogging,Microsharing, Community Of Inquiry,Social Networking,Student Engagement

also can visit : http://patricklowenthal.com/publications/Using_Twitter_to_Enhance_Social_Presence.pdf

Twittering Informal Learning and Student Engagement in First-Year Units

Introduction

While universities now routinely offer and frame educational experiences via the internet, the implementation of online learning is often predicated on, and driven by, the choice of specific types of software, often referred to as Learning Management Systems (LMSs). While increasingly complex in the tools they offer, in general, LMSs attempt to digitally replicate the design and experience of a traditional classroom environment. At first glance, offering an approximation of the classroom would seem the logical approach as it brings familiar notions and expectations, reassuring institutions, educators and learners that whilst online they are still getting a ‘real’ university experience. Indeed, for online learning providers such as Open Universities Australia (OUA), the contributing educational institutions are contractually obligated to ensure that their online units match the on-campus equivalents as closely as possible. To facilitate online learning, lectures are now routinely captured as recorded audio and/or video streams; readings, unit notes, and other learning resources which are delivered via electronic repositories in university libraries; and synchronous tutorial discussions are replaced by asynchronous discussion boards or sometimes synchronous interaction via chatrooms or other real-time discussion tools. However, while LMSs offer a recognizable simulation of many of the formal elements of university education, with its own challenges and differing levels of success (Lane, 2009; Leaver, 2003), the informal learning opportunities are less widely addressed.

While there is considerable debate about the exact definition of informal learning, for the purposes of this chapter, informal learning is used to mean those unplanned interactions, exchanges and connections which broadly contribute to meaningful learning without being explicitly driven by curriculum (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009). These might be conversations between learners in common spaces such as coffee shops, libraries, study groups or even just comments made on the way out of a tutorial room. Informal learning includes the development of social ties, bonds and a sense of community between learners, as well as more learning-centred activities such as mutual support in completing assignments, sharing experiences and resources, dealing with educational policies and procedures. Informal learning is also part of the broader area of student engagement, which emphasises the social and cultural contexts that encourage learning beyond the classroom and curriculum. For on-campus students, a great deal of student engagement and informal learning occurs simply because learners are physically in the same room, without any explicit pedagogical driver. If informal learning opportunities within education are to be similarly available to online learners, then the shift away from shared physical spaces needs to be matched with an increase in potential online interactions which are somehow related to, or spring forth from, formal learning, but are not contained by formal moments or the tool of formal education, the LMS. Given that impetus, this chapter outlines an investigation into the utility of the online service Twitter as a tool for facilitating informal learning by examining its use by two first-year student groups, both taking the unit Web Communications 101; one group in a blended learning mode, which utilized traditional face to face tutorials, while the second version was delivered fully online via OUA.

What is Twitter?

Launched in 2006, and becoming increasingly popular since 2007, Twitter is an online platform which describes itself as “a real -time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting” (Twitter, 2011). Beyond the corporate speak, Twitter is generally regarded as either a micro-blogging tool or a scaled down social networking service. At a basic level, Twitter allows users to create short messages – called tweets – of up to 140 characters in length, shared publicly 1; with the most recent tweet displayed at the top of a user’s Twitter page, hence the micro-blogging description 2. Tweets may contain links, are usually shared publicly, may be directed to another Twitter user (using the ‘@username’ convention to specify a recipient), and may also be sent privately between individuals using a direct message function. Twitter meets the basic definition of a social networking site established by boyd and Ellison (2007) in that it is an online platform which allows users to “(1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (boyd & Ellison, 2007, p. 211). However, the ways individuals use their Twitter accounts tends to determine whether it is more social, more about sharing information, or more task-specific. Given that Twitter as a company emphasises information sharing, this tends to be the way most users conceptualize their use of the tool. Whilst much smaller in terms of users than the social networking giant Facebook, as of July 2011 Twitter still had more than 200 million users, generating over 350 million individual tweets every day. Significantly, in 2010 the US Library of Congress announced that they had formed a partnership with Twitter and would archive all public tweets (Lohr, 2010). While a valuable resource, this partnership also explicitly indicates the presumption that most Twitter activity is public, in comparison with other social networking services which have a higher proportion of content shared with limited numbers of people using privacy controls.

also can visit :http://www.nataej.org/6.1/0601-051052.pdf

Social Media Tools for Teaching and Learning

According to Wikipedia, “social media is the media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible scalable techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.”1 Social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, contain millions of members who interact to create social media. The ubiquitous nature of Facebook and Twitter has the attention of educators. In this column I will present tips on using Facebook and Twitter for teaching and learning.

THE PROBLEM

An athletic training instructor is challenged with utilizing Facebook and Twitter for educational purposes. Unlike other universities where she has worked, Facebook and Twitter are embraced at all levels of her current university. Recently the university president has charged each department to develop a strategy to expand and enhance cutting edge learning technologies. Her students are loyal users of Facebook and Twitter. The instructor seeks to understand the mechanics of Facebook and Twitter and their educational implications.

GETTING STARTED WITH FACEBOOK

Facebook is a social networking service that allows users to connect with friends, family, co-workers and others who have a similar interest and backgrounds. To get started using Facebook, follow this step-by-step process:

Set up your Facebook account. Direct your browser to www. facebook.com. You are required to enter your name email address, gender, and birthday. Unlike other social networking sites, Facebook has strict privacy policies. Upon logging into your account you can change or hide your email address, gender, and birthday. You can even change your name. I recommend using your real name, especially if your goal is to use Facebook for professional purposes.

information, and upload a personal profile picture. In your profile, you may add information on work experiences, education and special interests. Setting up a thorough profile will allow others to find you on Facebook. I strongly encourage you to create an account for personal use and one for your classes and educational program.

Edit your privacy settings. By default, Facebook shares certain information about you to everyone, even users who do not have Facebook accounts. There are three levels of privacy: Everyone, Friends of Friends, and Friends Only. For example, you may set your spring break photo album to only be shared with Friends. To access your privacy settings, log in and then click on the Account > Privacy hyperlink in the top right hand header of the page.

Create groups. Setting up groups allows you to separate your personal and professional content. For example, you may want to create an “Athletic Training Student” group. In doing so you will be able to engage the athletic training students in a professional environment while also staying in touch with your friends and family. You do not want your personal information to be a distraction to your students. An alternative to groups is to create a Facebook account specifically for education purposes.

FIVE FACEBOOK IDEAS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

1. Use as learning management system (LMS). If you do not have access to Blackboard, Moodle, Desire to Learn or other LMS, you can use Facebook to share documents, poll/quiz your students, and conduct group discussions.

2. Reference citations. Facebook has hundreds of applications (apps) that can be used for educational purposes. Worldcat. org’s CiteMe is an app that provides formatted citations for books. Currently, CiteMe provides APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, and Turbian formal

3. Announcements. send out reminders and schedule changes 

4. Post class notes. Post documents with descriptions in any file format on Facebook. 

5. Create group discussions. Split your class in to smaller study groups for class projects. You can keep track of student’s participation, provide guidance, and monitor progress. 

FIVE TWITTER IDEAS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

1. Log a teachable moment. Athletic training students can tweet about variations of skills they learn during their clinical experiences, such as modifications to a Lachman’s test. 

2. Quiz. Send quiz questions to your class and provide bonus points to students who respond within a given timeframe. 

3. Track a concept. Present a concept in class and ask students to tweet about the concept when they read about it in the professional literature. 

4. Track time. Athletic training students can use Twitter to keep track of their time spent in their clinical settings. 

5. Learning Diary. Students can keep a journal of the things that they learn during their clinical rotations. At the end of the week, a weekly reflection journal exercise can be submitted. 


also can visit :http://www.nataej.org/6.1/0601-051052.pdf

The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades

Abstract 

Despite the widespread use of social media by students and its increased use by instructors, very little empirical evidence is available concerning the impact of social media use on student learning and engagement. This paper describes our semester-long experimental study to determine if using Twitter – the microblogging and social networking platform most amenable to ongoing, public dialogue – for educationally relevant purposes can impact college student engagement and grades. A total of 125 students taking a first year seminar course for pre-health professional majors participated in this study (70 in the experimental group and 55 in the control group). With the experimental group, Twitter was used for various types of academic and co-curricular discussions. Engagement was quantified by using a 19-item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement. To assess differences in engagement and grades, we used mixed effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) models, with class sections nested within treatment groups. We also conducted content analyses of samples of Twitter exchanges. The ANOVA results showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in engagement than the control group, as well as higher semester grade point averages. Analyses of Twitter communications showed that students and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process in ways that transcended traditional classroom activities. This study provides experimental evidence that Twitter can be used as an educational tool to help engage students and to mobilize faculty into a more active and participatory role.

Keywords cooperative/collaborative learning, learning communities, media in education, post-secondary education, social media, teaching/learning strategies.

also can visit :http://blog.reyjunco.com/pdf/JuncoHeibergerLokenTwitterEngagementGrades.pdf

Instructional Uses of Twitter

Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are modeled after classrooms. While they are fully capable of supporting some learning activities (e.g., information and document sharing, asynchronous and synchronous discussion, and online tests and quizzes), they are incapable of supporting others. For instance, LMSs currently cannot support the just-in-time, and sometimes playful, interactions that happen before and after class, during a break, and so forth. Out-of-the-classroom interactions like these have potential instructional value (Kuh, 1995) and can help strengthen interpersonal relationships between and among faculty and students. In the following chapter, we briefly highlight some instructional uses of Twitter—a Web 2.0, microblogging tool. Social Presence and Online Learning Social presence is a concept well established in the online education. It refers to the “ability of participants in a Community of Inquiry to project their personal characteristics into the community, thereby presenting themselves to other participants as ‘real people’” (Garrison et al., 2000, pp. 89). Short, Williams, and Christie (1976), originally developed it to explain the effect telecommunications media can have on communication, social presence was used to describe the degree of salience (i.e., quality or state of “being there”) between two communicators using a communication medium. It took on new importance with the rise of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and later online learning (Lowenthal, in press, 2009). Social presence is now a central concept in online learning; researchers have shown—to varying degrees—a relationship between social presence and student satisfaction (Gunawardena, 1995; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; Richardson & Swan, 2003), social presence and the development of a community of learners (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, & Archer, 2001; Rovai, 2002), and social presence and perceived learning (Richardson & Swan, 2003). Faculty have tried different ways to establish and maintain social presence within an LMS (e.g., incorporating audio and video, posting instructions, and providing frequent feedback; see Aragon, 2003 or Lowenthal and Parscal, 2008, for more strategies) as well as different ways to do it using tools outside of an LMS (e.g., DuVall, Powell, Hodge, & Ellis, 2007) investigated using text messaging to improve social presence).

also can visit :http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/additionalResources/Handbook/Documents/Chapter_8.pdf

can we use twitter for educational activities

Gabriela GROSSECK Carmen HOLOTESCU

Abstract: 

Twitter is the most popular microblogging application, with almost one million users called twitterers, who can send and receive messages via the web, SMS, instant messaging clients, and by third party applications. Posts are limited to 140 text characters in length. With a solid experience in using Web2.0 technologies in education, the authors are trying to provide arguments for using Twitter as microblogging platform / social network in education, underlining its advantages, but also possible bad points. The article also presents an application related to the Romanian Twitosphere and a Romanian microblogging platform, already used in education.

Keywords:Web2.0,collaborative technologies,Twitter,microblogging,education

also can visit :http://portaldoprofessor.mec.gov.br/storage/materiais/0000012008.pdf

Using Twitter to Train Communicative and Cultural Competence

Abstract

Our work analyzes the usefulness of microblogging in second language learning using the example of the social network Twitter. Most learners of English do not require even more passive input in form of texts, lectures or videos, etc. This input is readily available in numerous forms on the Internet. What learners of English need is the chance to actively produce language and the chance to use English as tool of communication. This calls for instructional methods and tools promoting ‘active’ learning that present opportunities for students to express themselves and interact in the target language. In this paper we describe how we used Twitter with students of English at the Distant College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We analyze the students’ messages and show how the usage of Twitter trained communicative and cultural competence.

Keywords: ESL, microblogging, language learning, communication.

also can visit :http://www.carstenullrich.net/pubs/Borau09Microblogging.pdf

hanya tekno dan inovasi

assalam. ini hanya sekadar pendapat daripada sy :)

Era kini manusia berlumba-lumba untuk mempelajari dan mencipta pelbagai teknologi. Teknologi yang ada sekarang semakin hari semakin canggih dan ianya memudahkan pelbagai golongan. Antara teknologi yang ada pada masa kini adalah seperti penggunaan komputer dan internet, telefon bimbit, GPS (Geographical Positioning System) dan lain-lain lagi.

Namun begitu, teknologi dan inovasi yang dilakukan hari demi hari ini mampu memberikan pelbagai kesan kepada para pelajar khasnya dan para pengguna amnya. Langkah yang efektif harus diambil bagi memastikan teknologi dan inovasi yang dilakukan tidak menjejaskan disiplin dan sahsiah pelajar serta pengguna-pengguna am. Berdasarkan pemerhatian yang dilakukan, salah satu langkah untuk mengelakkan perkara tersebut berlaku adalah ibu bapa haruslah mengawal dan memantau setiap perkara yang dilakukan oleh anak-anak mereka terutamanya dalam menggunakan pelbagai kemudahan teknologi. Seperti yang kita sedia maklum, zaman kini para pelajar telah menggunakan teknologi sebagai medium untuk mencari pelbagai sumber. Malangnya jika mereka menyalahgunakan teknologi tersebut, maka disiplin dan sahsiah mereka akan turut terjejas. Kemudahan seperti internet digunakan untuk mendapatkan pelbagai sumber. Namun jika penggunaannya adalah secara berlebihan, pelajaran mereka akan turut terjejas. Mereka juga lebih cenderung untuk berada di hadapan skrin komputer hingga sanggup mengetepikan tanggungjawab sebenar mereka.

mudah cepat dan pantas

Teknologi telah didedahkan kepada semua peringkat usia tidak kira sama ada yang tua mahupun yang muda. Teknologi juga telah diaplikasi dengan pelbagai bentuk hiburan dan secara tidak langsung memudahkan sesiapa sahaja mempelajarinya. Contoh teknologi yang dapat diketengahkan adalah seperti permainan video, pemain cakera padat dan pemain audio (MP3) mampu membuat individu itu terhibur. Tetapi walau bagaimanapun, jika penggunaannya tidak dikawal ianya boleh menyebabkan kelalaian dan ketagihan. Seperti pusat permainan video, ianya lebih banyak mendatangkan keburukan berbanding kebaikan. Melalui kajian yang pernah dijalankan, pusat permainan video ini selalu dikunjungi oleh para pelajar. Mereka sanggup menghabiskan wang dan masa semata-mata untuk mencapai kepuasan diri mereka. Mereka juga sanggup mengabaikan tanggungjawab mereka di sekolah dan di rumah kerana terlalu taksub dalam meyesuaikan diri dengan arus teknologi ini. Teknologi seperti ini telah disalahgunakan oleh para pelajar. Terdapat kes di mana pelajar yang ketagihan hingga sanggup ponteng sekolah dan memasuki pusat permainan video. Oleh itu, pihak yang menganjurkan pusat permainan video ini haruslah memainkan peranan yang penting dalam mencegah gejala seperti ini. Mereka boleh menguatkuasakan peraturan bagi kedai mereka dengan menyelaraskan waktu dan had umur yang boleh dikunjungi oleh para pelajar khasnya. Dengan cara ini, penggunaan teknologi sebagai media hiburan akan lebih terkawal.

Selain daripada itu juga, guru-guru yang mengajar di sekolah juga boleh memainkan peranan mereka dengan mengajar para pelajar menggunakan teknologi tersebut dengan cara yang betul. Para pelajar perlu didedahkan dengan teknologi supaya mereka tidak ketinggalan dalam dunia cyber yang semakin meluas pada masa kini. Penggunaan teknologi seperti komputer sebenarnya dapat membantu kita dalam memudahkan pelbagai urusan. Teknologi yang ada boleh meningkatkan kualiti dan prestasi kerja setiap individu jika mereka menggunakan dengan cara yang lebih professional. Pengajaran tentang teknolgi seperti internet boleh dimulakan di sekolah. Guru-guru dapat memantau para pelajar sekiranya mereka menyalahgunakan sistem rangkaian maklumat tersebut. Dengan adanya pendedahan tentang teknologi seperti ini, para pelajar dapat menyesuaikan diri dengan dunia teknologi yang semakin meluas.

Di negara Malaysia, Kementerian Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi telah diberi tanggungjawab yang besar dalam menggubal dasar Negara dalam pembangunan sains dan teknologi termasuk menggubal, memantau dan menyelaraskan perlaksanaan dasar keselamatan negara mengenai teknologi maklumat dan komuniasi (ICT). Pihak ini juga perlu memberi kefahaman dan kesedaran tentang penggunaan teknologi ini. Mereka seharusnya meneliti dan mengkaji baik atau buruk tentang setiap teknologi yang didedahkan. Sekiranya terdapat kekurangan yang boleh menyebabkan pelbagai masalah, mereka haruslah menangani masalah tersebut dengan mengambil pelbagai insiatif lain. Pihak ini juga boleh mendedahkan penggunaan teknologi yang berunsurkan pendidikan kepada para penggunanya. Pada zaman ini, telefon bimbit bukan sahaja digunakan sebagai alat komunikasi tetapi ianya juga digunakan untuk mendapatkan pelbagai maklumat. Antaranya adalah aplikasi kamus, penggunaan internet melalui wiFi dan juga GPS (Geographical Positioning System). Namun begitu, jika kesemua aplikasi teknologi ini digunakan dengan sewenang-wenangnya, ianya akan menjejaskan disiplin dan sahsiah individu tersebut.

teknologi dihujung mata

Teknologi dan inovasi boleh dilakukan sekiranya kesemua sistem tersebut dikawal dengan teliti. Bagi para pelajar yang menggunakan teknologi sedemikian rupa, mereka harus bijak dalam membahagi masa dan menggunakan teknologi tersebut. Teknologi seperti televisyen atau radio sebenarnya boleh memainkan peranan yang penting dalam menangani disiplin dan sahsiah pelajar-pelajar. Hal ini kerana, televisyen dan radio merupakan media elektronik di mana pelbagai maklumat serta hiburan dapat disampaikan. Sekiranya kandungan yang dipaparkan pada skirn televisyen tersebut adalah menerusi saluran yang betul, disiplin serta sahsiah mereka tidak akan terjejas. Teknologi yang diaplikasi dengan maklumat yang berunsurkan pendidikan, keagamaan ataupun sumber pengetahuan, dapat memberi impak positif kepada individu tersebut. Disiplin mahupun sahsiah yang baik bagi setiap individu itu sebenarnya bermula daripada apa yang mereka lihat dan apa yang mereka dengar kerana perkara tersebut menjadi asas dalam membentuk perwatakan mereka. 

Kesimpulannya, setiap teknologi dan inovasi yang dilakukan sebenarnya dapat merangsang sesuatu yang lebih positif dalam hidup masyarakat hari ini. Namun jika kita tidak mengawal penggunaannya, maka pelbagai perkara negatif juga boleh berlaku. Disiplin dan sahsiah pelajar-pelajar ataupun pengguna am bukanlah terletak di hujung dunia teknologi semata-mata, tetapi ianya bergantung pada cara mereka dididik dan diasuh sehingga mereka mengenali apa itu teknologi dan apa itu inovasi. Walaupun teknologi itu seringkali diperkatakan sebagai dunia tanpa sempadan, namun penggunaan setiap teknologi itu sebenarnya memerlukan sempadan yang utuh agar tidak disalahgunakan.