I must admit that when I first heard about Twitter I thought it represented the apex of what concerns me about internet technology: solipsism and sound-bite communication. While I obviously spend a great deal of time online and thinking about the potential of these new networked digital communication structures, I also worry about the way that they too easily lead to increasingly short space and time for conversation, cutting off nuance and conversation, and what is often worse how these conversations often reduce to self-centered statements. When I first heard about Twitter I thought, this was the example par excellence of these fears, so for many months I did not investigate it at all.

Abstract In something of a landmark for education Knowles (1970) suggested an important change in the way in which educational experiences for adults should be designed. The approach, known as andragogy, contrasts quite sharply with pedagogy which is the teaching of children. This paper suggests there is benefit in moving from andragogy towards truly self-determined learning. The concept of truly self-determined learning, called heutagogy, builds on humanistic theory and approaches to learning described in the 1950s. It is suggested that heutagogy is appropriate to the needs of learners in the twenty-first century, particularly in the development of individual capability. A number of implications of heutagogy for higher education and vocational education are discussed. top Heutagogy

Technology has made it easy for educators to embrace continual professional development. Few ideas about teachers' professional growth resonate with me more than those of Richard Elmore, professor of educational leadership at Harvard, who has gone as far as to argue that school structures make learning for adults unlikely at best and nothing short of impossible at worst.

Lee Keller asks Kim Cavanaugh about using blogs in education

Wikis offer a space that can be explored to promote the principles associated with peer learning and collaboration

Abstract: As more and more instructors enter the world of online teaching and learning, a body of knowledge is emerging around the challenge of facilitating online interaction and fostering online collaboration. This paper draws from the literature on asynchronous learning and the authors' own experiences with online discussion and collaborative online projects. We identify a variety of techniques for focusing student dialogue, fostering an online learning community, and promoting successful collaboration. Instructors who are teaching wholly online courses or simply integrating online components into face-to-face classes will benefit from the observations and discussion.

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FREE RESOURCES AND LESSON PLANS FOR TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY

Here are 10 resources that specifically look at the educational use of Twitter: