Dare I admit this in my blog? I think I am addicted to Twitter!

A day doesn’t go by without checking my Twitter updates. I haven’t quite put my finger on why it is so addictive. What possesses me to log on each morning to see what are people are doing, reading, saying or thinking? And why do I feel compelled to answer in 140 characters or less the question – What are you doing? Do people really care?

Today I am a panelists on KnowledgeBank for a follow up session of Steve Hargadon keynote – Web2.0 is the Future of Education. It is reading his paper on 10 Trends he believes have importance for education, that I started to make some connections with why I like Twitter.

Trend 1 – New Publishing Revolution – I can create content through micro-blogging and make links to other content.

Trend 2 – A Tidal Wave of Information – There is so much to learn from the Twitter community. You can always find new tools, find out about a project or some interesting research. You can even call on the Twittersphere for advice – see Jess McCulloch’s post.

Trend 3 – Everything is Becoming Participative – Twitter allows for opinions, reflections and comments. Dialogue can be generated out of a link to a news story or a video.

Trend 4 – The New Pro-Sumers - I can consume, produce and digest.

Trend 5 – The Age of the Collaborator – I can find new ideas and great experiences shared via Twitter. I can work on shared understandings and collaborate to create new knowledge – all through a tweet.

Trend 6 – An Explosion of Innovation – Many new ideas, projects have come about from communicating globally with other like minded, or not so like-minded people.

Trend 7 – The World Gets even Flatter and Faster – Twitter is anytime, anywhere! I can connect globally 24/7. Twitter does not close for the day.

Trend 8 – Social Learning Moves Towards Centre Stage – Much of my learning about Web2.0 most definitely has come through social online interaction. Twitter has been my ‘hallway’ for learning. It is that quick chat, the touch base with a colleague, the overhearing of the a little gem that for me, is the most addictive thing about Twitter.

Trend 9 – The Long Tail – The more I learn about Web2.0 on Twitter the more I want to learn. I have a passion to learn and am active in my pursuit.

Trend 10 – Social Networking Really Opens Up the Party – and wow what a party it’s been so far.

So what do others think?

I had heard about RSS feeds mid year in 2007 but really didn’t get it at that time – at all! It was only addressed briefly as part of a blogs and wikis workshop and there was so much going around my head that I was unable to comprehend one more thing.

However, since then I have taken the time to explore and press those orange buttons to see what they do. I started subscribing to feeds mainly as widgets on my iGoogle home page. Then I pushed my boundaries and explored iGoogle Reader and viewed the explanation video. I learnt that RSS was a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Still I was not too sure what this all meant in the big picture of learning and teaching.

Today when I listened to EdTechTalk things started to fall into place. I heard how teachers use RSS feeds in their classrooms. Some of these were –

For Students -
To follow other classroom pages
To follow their interests
To follow teacher pages
As reading material to respond and comment on
To support collaborative projects with students subscribing to each other’s pages, such as in pageflakes

For Teachers -
For professional reading
To find appropriate classroom resources and content

For Parents -
To follow student and classroom pages

Now to explore and learn further. Thank goodness for holidays!

(Thanks to the team at EdTechTalk for the heads up on RSS)