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Links to some good resources on using twitter in higher ed.

Diving into a rich and overwhelming social network like Twitter can be difficult. I know of many teachers and academic-minded people who are still unsure about the merits of the tool or are simply unsure where to start. The following 10 (+1 bonus!) beginner's guides to Twitter each do a tremendous job at informing without confusing.

Abstract: Social network sites (SNSs) are increasingly attracting the attention of academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach. This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together scholarship on these emergent phenomena. In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition. We then present one perspective on the history of such sites, discussing key changes and developments. After briefly summarizing existing scholarship concerning SNSs, we discuss the articles in this special section and conclude with considerations for future research.

"Réussite Montérégie Ce répertoire regroupe des outils pour les acteurs de la réussite, produits par Réussite Montérégie, un organisme initié par la Table d'Éducation Interordre de la Montérégie (TEIOM) « pour accroître la persévérance scolaire des jeunes et augmenter le taux de diplomation des élèves afin de contribuer au développement économique et social en assurant la meilleure employabilité d'une relève qualifiée. » On y trouve, par exemple, une vidéo sur la persévérance et un article sur les impacts du décrochage scolaire."

Tips for using twitter in education

[academhack] "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. Then I read an article by Clive Thompson at Wired. Clive's article convinced me that perhaps it was worth giving Twitter a try. At this point I have to say, I am so glad that I did. Although I am still beginning to wrap my head around all of its varied uses-I think for the most part Twitter users themselves are still figuring this out-I have been using it for over six months now and come up with some academic uses." (...)

"Because social-networking tools are forums for personalized, socially focused conversations, the communities that spring from these tools are person/people-centered. As Porter explained, this person/people-centeredness results in the value of participation being opaque for anyone who is not participating. To address this problem, we made sure that students who chose not to participate (because the value of participation is opaque for them) had access to our tweets by incorporating an RSS feed-like Twitter widget in our LMS. (See Figure 5.) Many widgets like these can be found online, although we should note that this particular widget has limitations. As seen in the example in Figure 5, the widget only displays Joni's posts, not the back-and-forth exchanges between her and members of her network. Students might incorrectly assume that the interaction is one-sided and less than dynamic. Besides keeping students apprised of the resources we shared via Twitter, however, this widget allowed them to vicariously discover Twitter's value. Some students later chose to join us in Twitter because they had a better understanding of what they were getting into because its value was less opaque. Ultimately, we found that Twitter helped us achieve our student-engagement objective, but we also quickly discovered that students' Twitter participation led to other notable instructional outcomes."