It happened again last week. I was talking to a couple of teachers from one of my schools. I said, “I read on Twitter this morning…,” and I saw it: the raised eyebrows, the exchanged glances, the swallowed smiles. I realized that I could announce the second coming, and nothing would be taken seriously because it came from Twitter.
I’ve said before that I like Twitter as a tool and I think it is important. I have built more useful network connections and found the better resources on Twitter than I have at any conference or professional development day. I believe that every teacher should have a Twitter account and at least follow some of the better accounts. However, I often run into a subtle prejudice against being part of the Twitter network, and I think the main reason for this is…the name.
Twitter, it just sounds silly, and even sillier is the term tweet for each post on the service. People in media who criticize the service always use these as part of their criticism. “I don’t tweet” they comment, implying through emphasis on a word that anyone who does this must have the IQ of a marsupial. I myself hate using the word tweet, more often I say “I posted on Twitter.” The problem is exacerbated by the variations, retweeting, mistweet, tweeps…ugh! I wonder what would happen (and I’m sure this has happened) if a doctoral student cited Twitter in his or her thesis. I’m certain that the candidate would be mockingly dismissed, even though Twitter can be as good a source of information and reference as any of the traditional ones.
It is the same with teachers. It is hard for people used to talking about taxonomy, pedagogy, and metacognition (whether they understand them or not) to say tweet in the same sentence. The same goes for wiki, moodle, Glogster, and to a lesser extent, Prezi. The free-form naming of the web is a great marketing tool for the general public, but a definite hurdle for the professional world of education.
We need to jump beyond this prejudice, for Twitter is a vital tool. It is also one of the few social media platforms that is not particularly populated with students (the average age of Twitter users is 39), so despite the name it is a place for adult conversation away from the noise. By building a “following” list carefully, one can develop a stream of great information and support.
I wonder what the reaction would be if Twitter were called Dynamic Blackboard, if posts were called, well, posts, and if those who participated were called scholars. I’ll bet there would be significantly more openness to trying it and considerably less embarrassment in saying one did.
Tweet Tweet
Raised eyebrows and swallowed smiles… I’d take that over being interrupted with, “Twitter? Don’t tell me you tweet!?”
I truly think the “laminated plan book” type who ridicule things like Twitter are reacting out of a complete lack of understanding. This is a forgivable venial sin unless, after hearing an explanation of the value of tools like Twitter, they continue to dismiss them.