I twitter, do you?  Have you seen the video below from Common Craft about Twitter?

http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

Not sure what Twitter is?

“Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app.” Time Magazine

Heard of micro-blogging? It’s a brief form of blogging, short blog posts, there’s usually a character limit of 200 or less, like Twitter’s limit of 140 characters.

It’s a bit like Reality TV on the net. Your network of ‘friends’ tell you how long they’ve been waiting for the train, what they are listening to on their iPod, what they are eating and what they are wearing to bed. It’s short and it’s sharp.

You’ll read what they are presenting and at what forum, you’ll read what happened in their class that day or what amazing discovery they have made.

How does my network use Twitter?

I’ll invite them to comment on why they like Twitter, but mostly, I see them sharing educational resources, asking each other for support and advice, and making friends. They notify each other of the latest educational news and happenings, not just locally but internationally. It’s a fantastic way to keep your collaborative networks real, alive, dynamic.

Twitter is a great and convenient way to interact, you can post ‘Tweets’ from your mobile, on the Twitter website, from twitter widgets inside Facebook, edublogs, wiki’s and even from within Second Life. I can put a Twitter widget just about anywhere so I can keep an eye on the conversation. I can even add a Twitter widget to my netvibes/ RSS feed reader so that I can read and communicate with educators, friends and family all over the country.

What cool things have I discovered about Twitter?

A little secret I’ll share with all of you, you can actually add a Twitter application into your Facebook profile that updates your Facebook profile everytime to post a Twitter. So you don’t need to go into Facebook to update your profile.

Try it! It’s fast and it’s fun!

See Wikipedia

A social network site allows people who share interests to build a ‘trusted’ network/ online community. A social network site will usually provide various ways for users to interact, such as IM (chat/ instant messaging), email, video sharing, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, etc.

The main types of social networking sites have a ‘theme’, they allow users to connect through image or video collections online (like Flickr or YouTube) or music (like MySpace, lastfm). Most contain libraries/ directories of some categories, such as former classmates, old work colleagues, and so on (like Facebook, friendsreunited, Linkedin, etc). They provide a means to connect with friends (by allowing users to create a detailed profile page), and recommended systems linked to trust.

Here are some of the more popular Social Networking spaces:

Popular Social Networks (widely used in 2007)

• Facebook – A social networking website. Initially the membership was restricted to students of Harvard University. It was originally based on what first-year students were given called the “face book” which was a way to get to know other students on campus. As of July 2007, there over 34 million active members worldwide. From September 2006 to September 2007 it increased its ranking from 60 to 6th most visited web site, and was the number one site for photos in the United States.
• Twitter – A free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or an application/ widget within a space of your choice, like MySpace, Facebook, a blog, an RSS Aggregator/reader. More
• MySpace – A popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world’s sixth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any language, and the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on various weeks. As of September 7, 2007, there are over 200 million accounts. More

Click here for a more extensive list.

Can I have it in English please?

Sure. Watch this movie from Common Craft;

Coming soon…

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to explore Social Networking with you. I’ll invite you to join me in my Social Networks, if you don’t already belong.

We’ll look at some options for creating and maintaining Social Networks for educational purposes, and some examples of education focused Social Networks.

Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see covered, or please ask any questions and I’ll endeavor to get some answers for you!

There are many great extensions (I’ll list my favourite ones at the bottom of this post), but for now I’d like to show you Twitterbar.

Have you seen twitter? Here’s my twitter page.

The twitterbar extension allows you to post a ‘tweet’ (message) to twitter from the firefox address bar.

Just type your message where you would usually type a URL and click the twitter button.

A small unobtrusive grey icon sits to the right of your addressbar, clicking on it will then post your ‘tweet’, mouseover will tell you how many characters you have left.

You can also post by typing ‘ –post’ or hit the grey arrow when visiting a webpage to carry out a URL tweet (i.e it adds ‘Currently Browsing: ‘ in front of the url).

I am currently trialling this tool at the moment, so Tweet me. Surely I’m not the only one that has noticed that a high percentage of students have and use mobile phones, in fact more so than computers! I have also had some feedback from a TAFE (trades) teacher at the North Coast Institute who says that using mobile phones with a class of young guys has not only engaged his class, but opened the door for improved communication….

…think about that!

A couple of my favourite Firefox Extensions:

• deli.icio.us – add websites to your online bookmarks/favourites
• netvibes- (track updates to CLI/LRR resources this way!) add rss feeds to your personal netvibes page (please see this post)
• twitterbar- send sms/ messages from your address bar
• ForecastFox- have three days of weather at the bottom of your browser
• Foxmarks- sync your bookmarks from EVERY computer you work at
• Copy Plain Text- select text on a website and click this button to copy plain text (avoids taking all the web formatting with you)

I use a few more, but that’s a good start.

Get Firefox!

Mac Users: Twitteriffic!

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