Many teachers find that Twitter is a better online collaboration tool than wikis or blogs. Some of the reasons include:

Easy access- Twitter is invisible technology. The student doesn’t need to learn a set of buttons and menus.

Low Risk- Reluctant learners can handle 140 characters (usually less). There’s little chance of failure.

Real time- Students see their project grow as they work. Collaborators can work from different computers with out fear of clogging the project (a problem with many blogs and wikis)

No formatting- Given bells and whistles, many students will ring and toot instead of write. The simplicity of Twitter offers only a place to add text.

Concise writing- 140 characters means each word has to be necessary. The process of posting to Twitter forces students to become better writers.

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Mashable Social Networking News has proclaimed that Twitter has “Bounced Back!.”

I’m sure that many readers of this blog may not have realized that Twitter was falling, needed to bounce back,  or for that matter, that Twitter even existed.

Twitter is a microblogging service just into it’s second year on the net. It is a backbone of many personal networks. 140 character messages let communities know what’s happening and which other network has more information. For a good explanation of Twitter go to the Twitter Handbook Blog.

Twitter has bounced back from a decrease in users caused by a recent string of growing pains. The service has experienced huge growth and frankly, was not prepared. Many users began searching for alternatives and cut back on use. But, as Mashable explains better than I could, the service is on the mend.

Why would I care? And why should my faithful readers care?

First, I’m a contributor to the Twitter Handbook and I like being associated with successful stuff. I also use Twitter as an important part of my Personal Learning Network. I don’t want to rebuild a network some where else.

Many websites and services have come and gone on the internet during the last 15 odd years. It’s difficult to know which ones to invest time with.

And that brings me to why it matters to you.

You should be on Twitter. Whatever matters to you, whatever your, there are people like you on Twitter. Hundreds of thousands, of people post what they are doing 140 characters at a time. It’s a great link to people you want to know and read.

Go. Sign up. You’ll see. And follow me on Twitter. I’m wwhitlock.

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