Early Morning Twitter Education

January 12, 2008 by googtweetblog

Oh my. I woke up at 4:45 this morning with the idea for this post still rattling around in my brain from last night. First thing I do when ‘puter boots up is check in with twhirl where I find a tweet from @kwhobbes stating “New blog post - we need to connect http://kwhobbes.edublogs.org“ Go off to read it and find spectacular post about educational discourse, networking, and conversation……………and a twitter-quote from ME:

“Maybe that’s the lesson we need to take with us as we continue to approach those around us, showing them the power of our networks and the learning that these networks encourage. As was posted tonight on twitter

“finished watching really bad movie, off to bed. Twitterverse very different from even a week ago…….more “conversations”, less telling.”

Now, Kelly and I have slightly different views on the subject of conversation in twitter. I love the fact that my quote was included in the post, and find it interesting that it was interpreted the way it was.

To be honest, I was getting completely overwhelmed by the conversational aspect of Twitter - I would recieve 25 tweets in 10 min, all related to something I wasn’t in the slight bit interested in. I use twitter for edtech networking and depend heavily on the links provided by the people I follow, but just don’t have time to keep up with all of the back-and-forth about social/political/other stuff. Well, come to find out I brought it upon myself! The past few days I’ve been getting more and more annoyed with Twitter, but not enough to quit using it. This was after a conversation on Twitter prompted me to change my settings for @’s - I wanted to find new people, so wanted to see who my followees were talking to. I even tweeted about my newfound knowledge of how to change these settings! Well, come to find out that by making the change, I got way more than I bargained for. (I’m referring to the @ settings in Notificiations under Settings at Twitter.com) So, here’s the description of the settings:

From Twitter Support:

“Based on popular demand, we’ve created new settings for managing your @replies on Twitter. You’ve got three options.

Default: @ replies to the people I’m following
I receive @replies from people I follow under the condition that I also follow the person they are replying to. This setting is ideal for those who seeking the happy medium in Twitter interaction, as @replies are still visible, but restricted to mutual followers. (Do you err on the side of caution? I am for you.)
Always: all @ replies
I receive all @replies from people I follow, even if I don’t follow the person to whom the @reply is directed.This setting is ideal for those seeking maximum social Twitter interaction, as viewing replies to people you don’t follow may spur impulsive or compulsive Twitter reading (or both!) as well as more potential @replying on your part. You may develop an unexpected interest in friends of friends, followers of friends, friends of followers. (Do you fly by the seat of your panties? Pick me!)
Never: no @ replies
I never, ever receive @replies, and I never want to. I could care less about twitters directed at other people, whether I know them or not. This setting is ideal for those looking for minimal social-conversational Twitter interaction. (Slightly antisocial? Abhor social networking? It’s me you want.)”

I had changed my setting to “all @ replies”. No WONDER I was getting tons of stuff I had no interest in! I’m changing it back to “@ replies to the people I’m following”. I use Twitter for edtech networking and don’t have space in my brain for the conversations going on with everyone else in the twitterverse about unrelated topics. I may be back to twitter-balance now……………..

(edited to add: check out the new TwitThis widget in the sidebar, I’ll post on that later - thanks to Patrick Woessner at Technology in the Middle for helping me find it!)

Posted in twitter | Tagged twitter | 5 Comments

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5 Responses to “Early Morning Twitter Education”

on 12 Jan 2008 at 9:14 am1 JBlack

Thanks much for the tip on Twitter. I’m pretty new to this tool (about one month into it) though I saw/heard about it long ago. I just didn’t get it at first, you might say. I get it now, but like you want to tweak it to make it work for me.

Yesterday I tweeted that I saw a similarity to twitter and parallel play in children (you know, when you go to a play date and toddlers all play in the same room but seldom really play together). Twitter can be like this at times (me thinks), but when we see others playing with something we’re particularly interested in, we merge into their play settings/environment. Like you, there are times I like looking around and seeing what everyone else is doing, and times I just need to focus on my endeavors and anything relating to my endeavors. Thanks for the tip on the @ setting. Will use it today and see what happens.

Additionally, sort of on this same topic, yesterday I tweeted if anyone had experienced googling a twitter ID (I happened to do my own, actually for another reason unrelated to twitter). I don’t make my tweets private, so I should not have expected anything less that what popped up on my screen- but it did make me stop to think private tweets might be good.

No one responsed to my tweet on googling twitter IDs, which I thought was strange, but thought, okay, this is twitter; like the falling tree in the forest, when someone tweets and no one is around (or is so actively engaged in their own parallel play), does the tweet really make a “sound”? I am really interested to hear what others think about the results you see on the screen when you google your twitter ID. Are many aware of this? I’m not particularly freaked, but find it really interesting how easy it “follow” others via a non-twitter tool, and one that is so predominantly used.

Lots of heavy thinking for the morning. I may need a third cup of tea.

Thanks again for your insightful post.
on 12 Jan 2008 at 9:50 am2 Patrick Woessner

Kate,

Great post…wish I had thought to mention the @reply options when I blogged about Twitter a few days ago! Filtering out the tweets can really help teachers see the professional, social networking aspects of Twitter; it’s an AWESOME tool when managed effectively.
on 12 Jan 2008 at 2:00 pm3 kwhobbes

Kate,

It’s interesting how what we say can be taken in different ways even when we think what we have said is so clear. Twitter is a great tool but I find that my connections are related to the time I have to develop them, which makes sense of course. What I like is that the the conversations have evolved over time with my main contacts. I quit following people who’s comments don’t relate, most of the time, to my interests.
The reply options settings are good to know about although I’m liking my twitter just the way it is so I won’t be worried about changing it any time soon.

The conversations we are having are important as education is going through this time of change. Thanks for contributing to it.
on 12 Jan 2008 at 2:46 pm4 Sylvia Martinez

Hi Kate,
I find that some of my most interesting new “friends” come from clicking on the @newname tweets of people I already follow. Twitter can be overwhelming at first, but it sort of becomes normal after a while. You might want to turn that option back on for a bit, add a few more people, then turn it off again, like a little hot water to a tepid bathtub.
on 13 Jan 2008 at 2:44 pm5 Rash Kath

Hi!
Firstly, I would like to say GOOD JOB! to you.
Its really good to share good things. I am new to use twitter. These things are so important to save time and energy and managing relevant links.