10.01.2008

Twitter, Txtng, & Blended Learning

Twitter and Texting

The New York Times reports that cellphone subscribers are now sending more text messages than phone calls: 357 text messages verses 204 cellphone calls.

And we can be sure that Twitter accounts for some, if not many of those text messages. But how valuable is Twitter to learning professionals?

Jane Hart recently posted 100+ (E-)Learning Professionals to follow on Twitter and Tony Hirst immediately followd it with a Yahoo pipe that aggregates the tweets from Jane's list.

Tony Karrer tested the pipe, but left with the thought that there was no real need to follow it and wonders if he is missing something?

And I do not think he is alone. Businessweek's article, Twitter Distracts and Annoys, notes that, "Twitter is the ultimate in self-centeredness. To imagine that anyone would want a running commentary of every moment of your life puts you - as a businessperson - at the center of your world when in fact that's where your customer should be.

Yet not everyone sees it that way. Jay Cross writes that, Twitter is like pointillism. Up close it can be meaningless. Back away and a pattern emerges.

And yes I'm on Twitter: IOpt. And I'm scratching my head also. Is Twitter a worthy learning tool or just a means to "comment on every moment of our lives"?

While texting is not Twitter, it is related. David Crystal released his book, txtng: the gr8 db8. Hw writes that we could not be good at texting if we had not already developed considerable literacy awarness as in order to write abbreviated forms effectively and play with them you need to have a sense of how the sounds of language relate to letters. For a review, see Donald Clark's (of Plan B), txtng (the gr8 db8).

Effectiveness Of Traditional And Blended Learning Environments Science Daily

Strickland compared the course delivery methods in two respiratory therapy courses taught by the same teacher. One group of students completed the course in a traditional environment, while the other group completed the course in a blended environment. The method of course delivery, the final examination grade and the course grade were recorded for each student. Strickland studied the students' satisfaction with the course through the information provided by each student on a standardized student evaluation of the course.

1 comment:

Eric Wilbanks said...

Donald, love your blog. Another great post. Here's my two-cents:

Twitter was not designed as a "learning tool" unless you count "learning about what I'm doing." However, I have personally found that Twitter makes an excellent tool for learning in several ways.

First, Twitter is great for incidental learning and teachable moments because it is instantaneous. For mutual followers, Twitter becomes an ongoing conversation (back-and-forth) and can just as easily be "learning-oriented" as any other conversation. I often use Twitter to post thought-provoking questions and statements and have mutual followers who do the same. It would be difficult to imagine Twitter as an all-in-one, nothing-else-needed learning tool, but it certainly can be used to augment learning in a clever and relevant manner.