second post:"Twitter tweet for higher education”

http://web20teach.blogspot.com/2007/08/twitter-tweets-for-higher-education.html

“Twitter”, one of the newly invented popular mircoblogs, is brand new to me but greatly attracts me. I love this chattering tool because it has the advantage of immediacy and convenience and we could update our personal life and current status frequently and keep our friends get to know us easily. When talking about these microblogs, I can only think of those message e-boards offer us great convenience to communicate in life but never think of they could also be used in classrooms, because how could a chatter tool of sending brief posts help education?
However, reading this post “Twitter tweet for higher education” brightens my mind that “Twitter” is a good helper to facilitate our teaching and learning. The author talks about his experience of using “Twitter” introduces the main functions of twitter as well as how to use it well to facilitate teaching in higher education. As it mentioned in the post, “Twitter” could be ideal for reminding students about homework, also a good drill to practice students’ ability of condense and economical expression writing, and be convenient for students to follow others’ links to learn events and other announcement, etc. For instance, teachers could use it as an e-board to make announcements, discuss content of lessons and events happened in the class, collecting students’ feedback and so on. As far as we are able to see, “Twitter” is not only a way to communicate with friends, but also ways for teachers communicating with students.
It is quite interesting and attractive to use “Twitter” as a teaching tool. As I begin to explore and learn more, I hope I can come up with some sparkling ideas about how to make the best use of twitter to help teaching.

Twitter & Pownce

I like both of the two tools “twitter” and “pownce”, they are very popular microblogs in our high tech life. The literal meaning of twitter is “give a call consisting of repeated light tremulous sounds”, which has the implied meaning of how it has been used now as a instant question “what are you doing?” for updating your personal status. Pownce is another instant status tool which is very similar to “twitter”.
The common things of “twitter” and “pownce” are that they have the advantage of immediacy and convenience. They are both convenient internet tools for us to send brief posts and update our personal life frequently to keep touch in with our friends.
However, “twitter” and “pownce” are not exactly the same since there are some differences between them. In “twitter”, we can only send text message within the maximum of 140 words through email, internet message, or cellphone. While “pownce” has no limitation in words, beside sending text message, we can also send files, links, and events to friends. And the files includes any kinds, such as photo, songs or even video.
There is another difference in “reply”: Pownce has the function of replying to others easily and directly, we could reply with clicking the button under each post. But “twitter” can only reply in the form of typing “@username”, that is why sometimes we may not see others replied message immediately if the message board updates too fast.
The last minor difference between the two is that “twitter” has more options to change the theme, since users can choose the picture from our own laptop. While “pownce” has very limited options of theme for users to choose. To most of the users, the one with more options is always more popular.
Above all, this is my temporary comparison of “twitter” and “pownce” so far after using it for a short time. I prefer “pownce” to “twitter” because it is more functional and convenient. I think later on, I may find more interesting points on both of them.

How microblogging can be used in education?

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/how-microblogging-can-help-you/

Microblogging is a new developed internet tool of communication in social network of the global community. According to wiki, “Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user.” In another word, microblogging is the practice of sending brief posts on a Web site, such as Twitter. It has the advantage of immediacy and convenience since we could update our personal life and current status frequently enough to keep our friends get to know us easily.
This article is “How Microblogging Can Help You”, although it is not directly related with how it could be used in education but I am still elicited after reading it. Like the many benefits the author presents in the article, such as “practice the art of economical expression”, or “develop the skill of writing now, worrying later”, all of them are ways related with facilitating education as long as the microblogging is used properly and correctly. For example, mircroblogging is all about brevity, since there is no need getting into a heartfelt discussion with someone. From the aspect of education, microblogging is a very good drill to practice students’ ability of condense and economical expression writing. Since it is designed to provide users answer very simple questions as “what” and “where”. Such as Twitter’s asks, "A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?"
Also, as the author points out, “mircoblogging allows readers to get to know you better”. We teachers could also encourage students to use it properly in order to facilitate teaching. For example, with using the Twitter, students could exchange information frequently because it enables them to quickly share messages, links and files. What’s more, for a new class, mircoblogging is a very good platform for new classmates to get to know each other well, so as for teachers to get to know their students.
As a whole, there are many ways microblogging helps us in life. People use microblogging to talk about their daily activities and to seek or share information which greatly brings convenience. Besides, it is also a good helper in the education field since technology enhance learning and teaching. Now, I can’t wait to start using it in my future teaching.