Twitter in Education?

One of my students recently read an article in the New York Times about how Twitter was killing the art of real conversation because twitter-ers were breaking the first rule of conversation by not really listening and only waiting for their opportunity to jump in. Then my student questioned how social media and Twitter might help or hurt the educational “conversation. Needless to say, I could hardly wait to add my two-cent to the conversation:

One of the problems with Web 2.0 stuff is that its use often defies the structures previously understood. What is twitter? In a linear world of meetings and memos, Twitter makes no sense. In a world of direct emails and broadcast media Twitter makes no sense.

Some time ago I had the most intense relationship, at a time when I was extraordinarily busy, and the relationship was greatly assisted by both of us having an open IM window where we could drop little thoughts over the course of our work day. We weren’t having long conversations, but there was a strong sense of presence (and unpressurized access). Twitter is like that, a sense of presence. It’s rarely direct conversation or communication. And unlike the video, it’s not a desperate plea for attention. For those with large followings it’s a means of crowd sourcing things. More than a few podcasts who stream their recording sessions live, will often ask the audience questions and get responses through Twitter. For those of us with smaller followings it’s more a way to keep informed on people or institutions of interest. Right now I have 320 followers and I’m following 311 and an increasing number of those I’m following are connected to NASA or science.

I’m a blogger, I spend hours and hours writing articles and creating videos for my blog. I’m used to the idea of sharing my thoughts and ideas with a relatively undefined public. I see Twitter as a way to do the same thing in much smaller chunks. When something isn’t quite worth spending hours on with a full blog entry then I twitter. That’s another thing, I don’t spend hours on Twitter and Twitter comes to me, I don’t go to it.

Like my former IM relationship, I’m doing other things when the Twitter happens. I have a Twitter app running in the background (like Tweetdeck or Tweetie) and I’ll occasionally glance over to see who is saying what. Or if I’m standing in a line I’ll check the Twitter on my phone. So for me it’s maintaining a sense of presence and keeping tabs on what’s going on without really having to work at it.

How this works for Education? I can tell you that it won’t work as long as we maintain this sense that education only happens between a set number of hours on a set number of days. It also won’t work as long as we maintain this fiction that teachers aren’t people, that teachers need to maintain a lifestyle unlike the norm we are willing to allow the phone company employee, software engineer and desperate housewife to have. Twitter as an educational tool makes sense when education isn’t something locked in a box, but becomes something where all experiences can be learning experiences and those of us who are called to be teachers find the balance to “Be” and not just “Do.” Anything less is a band aid on a broken system that needs to die and join the buggy-whip and the slate chalk board from whence it came.