Twitter

Well, I’ve been flirting with Twitter for a month. I like it- it has not become obsessive (yet) so that is good. I am still seeking the practical, life-altering, educational-related benefit to this device. It is wildly thrilling to be following a number of superstar individuals who are involved with learning and technology and education. Like I know exactly the moment Will Richardson has posted a new post and that Steve Dembo had to purchase a new car because his was totaled in an accident. Really, who would know that kind of stuff without Twitter? Not only is it thrilling to know that stuff, but to even receive replies from these superstars can be completely ego inflating! For example, I was playing with the Twitter features trying to figure it all out and I accidentally nudged Steve Dembo. I mean, how embarrassing to NUDGE someone who has no idea who I am! I didn’t even know what a nudge meant until after I had already done it. I was worried he would think I was stalking him or something so I quick shot out a tweet to him and apologized and explained what I was doing. He responded back to me and was completely nice about it! I was worried I would get flagged or banned or something. (Just so you know and you don’t make the same mistake, it apparently alerts that person that you are waiting to hear something from them…Steve didn’t think it worked.)

Here are a few points I am pondering with this application and how it relates to my life.

1. Why are the majority of the tweets from men? And…
2. Who knew they talked so much during the day! ouch
3. How do I incorporate Twitter effectively at work?

Examining my points; to be fair, I mostly follow men. HOWEVER, the three women I do follow hardly ever tweet. If you have not been on Twitter, here is a brief personal synopsis of the differences between the sexes and their responses.

Men: They tweet about everything they are doing. Getting the oil changed in the car, new blog posts, basketball scores, rebooting their routers, pondering how to find a Twitter filter (which, to me, sounded like wanting to use an aggregate on Twitter which, I also believe, is not entirely the purpose of the application, but a cool idea nonetheless. I did not choose to share that particular observation on Twitter, however), and submitting interesting nibblets of information they stumble upon. All this tweeting fills the twittersphere with hordes of fragmented comments throughout the day. There is also a great deal of good-humored banter that ensues which is very entertaining.

Women: They stick their beaks out once in a while to just sort of check in and/or tweet some sort of announcement. I’ve observed a little banter, but it is usually in the form of a direct reply vs. a tweet to all.

What does it all mean? I have no idea- it just makes me think and conjure theories. It is interesting to me. Maybe I 'll share my observations with John Gray and get some answers. I’m planning to continue to explore Twitter. I see an huge benefit in how quickly people receive information and responses in Twitter posts compared to blog posts. Several others I am following have commented on this phenomenon as well. Contemplating my statement #3…I will have to continue thinking on that one. Currently I am never sitting at my desk long enough at work to delve into Twitter and see what is going on out there.

If you are interested in who I follow on my Twitter account my profile name is ktkallen.
And if you have any thoughts, suggestions or comments I would love to hear from you!

I can’t wait to tweet out on Twitter that I have just posted to my blog…

Connecting

So many blog topics, so little time. There's that four letter word again...time.

Well, short post as I forgot my computer (gasp!) and actually had to write this longhand. Just to revisit my macul08 conference- I had the best time. Still struggling to get through all my notes and create some sort of brilliant, usable, organized method to keep the new ideas in the forefront of my mind and have other items available to share and demonstrate. That is all prep work and is the most difficult for me. The best part for me was coming back and sharing what I learned with people. I have started to regard that collaborative sharing of the knowledge as a ripple effect. And actually, I already see signs of the ripple effect at work. One person went home and played with all the different tools I presented for podcasting and came back the next day so geeked. You can't imagine how my heart was warmed when I went to the copier to retrieve a locked job that I had sent earlier and I saw there was another locked job waiting the in queue. Another sign of getting the knowledge out there and people practicing. Another sign of progress.

I love my job!

MACUL 08 Conference

Well, here I am- I am pumped up for a great two days here at macul08. In the first 1/2 hour I have already learned a ton and have added several new features to my blog! I LOVE having my laptop and wireless access and have been cross-referencing sites the presenters reference. I've checked out Gcast, joined the MACUL space through my Ning account, and even checked in with work and answered some email before the presentation started!

I'm off to a wonderful day-

Heading to MACUL and learning Twitter

I've been playing all last evening and early this morning on Twitter...I'd like to have the ability to Twitter straight from my blog. I have not been able to figure that out yet. I read about Traackr but have not explored that application. Just downloaded Twitbin so I could tweet that I am working on this post. I'll keep playing; right now I'm trying to decide if my tweets are narcissistic but if I get people to respond with proactive and thought-provoking ideas I am going to love the account.

I have to thank Mark Ahlness for getting me motivated to explore twitter...he is now following me so maybe he will read this and know that he has made a positive impact on an educator in Michigan's learning process. Pretty awesome to consider the power of making connections and being connected. To be fair, I should also thank my friend Sarah for introducing me to Mark's blog in the first place.

I am excited to be heading out early Thursday morning to the MACUL conference in Grand Rapids. I finally updated my phone because the old one died (I have a camera for the first time! So lame, I know, but who has time to shop for phones?!?!?! Especially when mine worked.) so I plan to be armed with my laptop and my phone and I'll be tweeting and snapping photos and updating from my blog and learning. It will be great. I have a Flickr account, but still need to figure out how to do a few things on that as well. That will be next!