Not Fair - Twitter Foul!
March 3, 2008 by Kate Olson
I honestly had to turn my computer back on to write this post - I’d already signed off, made my popcorn, and was ready to settle in for some reading before going to bed, but just had to get this post out of my head! Yup, I’m THAT person.
Anyway, the last blog post I read tonight was Robert Talbert’s “Three questions for filtering new technology” after seeing his tweet about it right before shutting down twhirl for the night.
Robert’s post is actually very interesting and I highly suggest reading it. Here’s a quote:
“I daresay that there are a lot of edubloggers out there that could stand a little more objectivity and critical thinking in how they approach technology; sometimes ed-tech blogs put off a sort of glassy-eyed cult-like aura, like the blogger wants nothing than for you to drink the Kool-Aid of the latest read/write Web 2.0 social network/digital storytelling thing they just spent 36 hours deconstructing. (I think the delusion about digital natives arises mainly as a product of the haze of one’s own unbridled indulgence in educational tech. Spend enough hours wasting time on Twitter and you can convince yourself that 24/7 sharing of personal acts and information is actually normative.)”
Now, as I said in my comment on his post - I always comment on a post before critiquing it on my blog, it’s just good etiquette - everyone has something to say about Twitter, good or bad. To tell the truth, most of my interest in social media isn’t for use in the classroom, it’s because I’m fascinated with it from a business perspective. As for the educational aspect - social media is here to stay and it’s our job as educators to understand it and prepare our students for jobs in which social media will be so deeply embedded that NOT having a background in it will make them seem extremely unprepared and uneducated. That’s a different subject than Robert is addressing, though. He makes excellent points about evaluating and filtering technologies before adopting them.
Say what you will about my twitter addiction, here’s why I’m calling a Twitter Foul on this:
Can you rightfully trash Twitter and then tweet about the very post in which you trashed it? Can you trash Twitter and then have a link to your Twitter ID on your ‘Contact Me’ page?
I really admire Robert -he was one of the very first people I ever followed on Twitter and he brings up some very provocative topics for edtech geeks like myself. Comment on his post, I’d love to see what you have to say about the issues he raises!
For those of you on Twitter when this post pops up - I’m not really there, my posts get tweeted automatically 
Honestly, I’m not on twhirl right now………no, REALLY, I’m not……………
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Hi Kate,
I’ve had conversations with various prominent members of the edublogging and edutech communities, including some who’ve confessed to Twitter “addiction” and have berated me for having a meagre 50-70 people I follow at any given time (when they generally follow 150+!)…
I’ve had to defend my own perspective of Twitter: that it serves as a valid means of conversation, but a poor medium for archiving, recording, or validating ideas, and even as a means of enabling conversation, its deconstructed, unthreaded, teeny-message simplicity bestows both blessings and curses upon its users. That is, I think, a rather more objective view of the tool than the OMG-this-is the-be-all-and-end-all-of-learning exhortations that some other edutechs and educators are inclined to extol.
I can definitely see how Twitter can be useful in “tuning in” to the vibe of a community of practice, so I’m not in Robert’s camp of dissing the platform entirely; but I’m no Twitter fanboy either. I think approaching ALL technologies with this kind of objectivity is vital for providing accurate advice and leadership in educational innovation!
Here’s Robert Talbert’s comment - there were technical difficulties when he tried to post it, so he emailed it to me:
Kate- Thanks for the link and especially for the kind words.
I wasn’t really bashing Twitter, but rather those who uncritically
adopt technologies (such as Twitter but including many, many other
things) and then insist that their technology is somehow the missing
link in teaching and learning today. That kind of attitude, which is
as old as technology itself, never really gets anybody very far –
especially today when entire pedagogies are being invented around
flawed assumptions about the technological literacy of children.
Now, people who actually use a technology in creative, interesting
ways and with a passion for teaching and learning and therefore use it
to great effect, they have my utmost respect. And I hope to hang out
with a lot of them at ICTCM this week and sort of glean from them.
I am obviously a Twitter user, although not a very consistent one, so
I thought it would be funny to say something like that about
Twitterers and then tweet about it.
Robert
Yes, very ironic.
But Robert has a valid point IMHO. It’s worth making a distinction between “educational technologists” and “edtech evangelists” - a good ed tech needs to apply a critical mind towards good learning solutions, which may involve technology to varying degrees. In some cases, they may come up with a solution that does not involve technology at all; but their technological acumen provides such solutions with credibility that more technical solutions have, at least, been considered (and discarded).
A good ed tech evangelist only has to spread the good news that the saviour of modern education is come. They will tend to promote the latest new-fangled gadget, website, or application enthusiastically but with a positive spin that may attract more teachers to try (whatever it is) in the short term, but can have a detrimental impact on their credibility in the long term.
I should state at this point that I’m not above a little edtech evangelism myself. There are times when it’s necessary to step out with one’s best salesman face; and, once people get interested, to point out the fine print. But unless that kind of behaviour is the exception, rather than the rule, I think it’s awfully difficult to maintain one’s authoritativeness as an objective expert, rather than a brainwashed fanatic.
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