Last night I was reading the March 16th issue of Time magazine and there was an article called "Quitting Twitter." I haven't yet checked out a twitter and they had an example in the article of a Twitter feed. Feeds, it says, are read from the bottom up so that you can read them chronologically. They seemed like short snippets of one's day--just irrelated thoughts or doings.
Twitter, the article said, launched in 2006 and has increased by more than 900%!! It now has more than 5 million users. The article pointed to some famous figures who Twitter- the Dalai Lama, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, to name a few.
The author also talks about how addicting Twitter is. Once you begin "following" someone's Twitter, you want to always know what they are doing and this ties into a point made in an article we read early in the semester about multi-tasking. It seems people are constantly reading "Tweets." So, if they are following someone, they check in on this person many, many times a day while at work, which distracts them. He also talks of the danger of becomming a bit infatuated with whom you are following. He takes a humorous approach to this, but it seems a bit creepy to me. Do I really want to know someone's random thoughts, or what they are doing all the time? I can see how becomming a follower of someone could become quite consuming.
I wondered though, about using a Twitter when someone is reading a novel or short story in class. It may be kind of fun to read people's Twitters as different parts of a book are read (out loud or quietly in class). It may help some poor readers better follow a plot line, or show some readers how people have random connections or predictions as they read a story. Might be kind of fun...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I like the idea of Twittering through a novel. The poorer readers would have the characterization or plot line synthesized down for them. The better readers would learn how to condense their words (140 characters). Besides the kids would feel like they are "cheating" because they are not writing long paragraphs. Maybe you could test with lesson plan with a short story. Give specific students one of the characters and ask them to twitter while you read aloud in class. I say give it a try and let us know how it goes.
ReplyDelete