K Bechtel

The purpose of this ethnography is to study a social networking site to find out what people do there and how it operates.  The social networking site I studied is Twitter.  Twitter is a site that can be used on one’s computer, phone, or IM to receive updates from people they follow.  Following someone simply means you receive their updates as they attempt to answer the question, “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less.  This form of quick micro-blogging is a very popular tool used among many people worldwide. 

Twitter is not a very old site as it was first used as a research project by the people within the company Obvious in March, 2006.  Months later, in October of that same year, it was launched for public use.  According to ComScore, within eight months of its launch, Twitter had about 94,000 users as of April, 2007.  Twitter seems to be quite addictive, in that, according to Clive Thompson, the numbers of Twitter users are doubling every three weeks and most users are between the ages of 18 and 27.  To fully understand its fanatical nature, take a closer look at what exactly happens at Twitter.

What exactly is Twitter?  According to the official Twitter FAQ, “Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away.  Curious people can make friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!”  Other users of Twitter, or Tweeple, have very unique descriptions of Twitter as listed below: 

·        micro-blogging,

·        group instant messaging,

·        round-the-clock updates,

·        telling the world I exist, and

·        what makes us interesting. 

Why do people choose to use Twitter?  I found the following answers from users of the site:

·         No need to search the Internet or search engines.

·         No longer guessing which resource will be of value to me.

·         Twitter is my human aggregator.

·         It is the latest up-to-date information.

·         Posts contain information that is valuable.

·         News stories are directly related to my interests.

Tweets are different from blogs not only in their length (tweets are limited to 140 characters whereas blogs are not), but also in that one may post a blog every few days on specific content.  Several tweets or updates may be made on a daily basis and can range from specific content, to a question, or just an update on your daily activities.  Regardless of how one describes it, Twitterers use the site for many different purposes.

According to Chris Brogan, people use twitter to participate in conversation, let others know what’s going on with them, make new friends, keep in touch with friends, find people in their geographic area using www.twitdir.com , and as a news feeder, discussion starter, opinion gatherer, and ideas distributor.  In other words, people talk about their own personal lives, their careers, their interests, and their hobbies.  Twitter is a forum for talking about anything.  Thompson adds that Twitter gives people “a social sixth sense”.  Even though many Twitter messages, or Tweets, are trivial, the true value of the site is cumulative.  After receiving updates on a daily basis, users are more aware in a telepathic sort of way of those people they are following.  This “ESP” is very useful in both the personal connections and business world in that you know the people you are involved with on a different level and are connected to this virtual community.  According to Utecht, “By joining the collective knowledge of other educators you are not only able to tap into this amazing body of knowledge for your own learning and resources gathering, but you also become part of the aggregation system making the system as a whole that much stronger, relevant, and accurate for all.”

According to Java along with my own observations from joining this network, Twitterers have four main intentions when using the site.  The first use is daily chatter.  People give short, brief accounts of what they are doing at the moment.  It is similar to an online diary, journal, or calendar of events that records your activities, thoughts, or feelings at any one moment. 

The second use is to have conversations.  Users can use the @ symbol in front of a user’s name to let them know they are addressing or responding to them specifically.  Users have reported some dissatisfaction in this feature.  According to Brogan, “I hate all the @ conversations in Twitter. Can’t people just use Direct Messages?  People use @username because it’s easier, because it allows others to follow a conversation, and because with the new Replies tab (in Twitter), it makes following a conversation easier. It’s the social norm there now. “  From my personal experience, it was annoying to hear bits and pieces of conversations that I was not a part of.  I certainly had trouble following.  For other users, some appreciated the @ conversations because they were simply eavesdropping on others and may even decide to join in the conversation themselves.  Direct messages which are private and seen only by the person you are sending it to can be sent using the code D + username + message.  Otherwise, messages are public unless you request to remain private except to your followers.

The next use is to share information and that includes URLs.  There are countless groups using Twitter that share hobbies, interests, careers, or goals.  Members of groups share information with one another through their updates.  Due to the limiting size of an update, many URLs are shortened using a service like TinyURL so this sharing is possible.

The final use of Twitter is to report news or current events.  This up-to-the-minute reporting is a convenience that many people appreciate.  In fact, reports have been made of using Twitter to inform people around the world of newsworthy stories and events.  The connectivity of the users of Twitter has been able to quickly spread the word and help made a difference in the lives of other people.  All of these reasons to use Twitter classify users of the site into three distinct categories of users.

Tweeple fall into one of three categories based on what they contribute to the community, what they take from the community, and how often they post an update.  The first category includes those people that are sources of information.  Their updates may be on a regular basis or infrequent, but they have many followers due to the valuable information they submit.  They may report on news or give specific information on topics relevant to a group of Twitters users.  The second category of users falls under classification of friends.  These people may be relatives, close friends, or even friends of friends.  Their use is of a social nature to keep in touch with what each one is doing.  The final category of users could be considered searchers of information.  They may not post regularly, but they follow other users to keep up-to-date or gain new knowledge or information.  

Twitter is a free service to anyone having an email address.  Setting up your account is simple to do.  You need to give your email address and set up your password.  The Terms of Service are available as a link on the “Create your Account” page.  There you will find the specific guidelines for the site.  Most of the rules are general such as being responsible for any content you post and not creating spam, but users must be over 13 years of age.  After setting up your account, there are a number of helpful resources available to answer all your questions including Twitter Support and http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter .  Users of Twitter do create a profile, but it is simple compared to other social networking sites.  You may customize your profile, but I found the most pertinent information given on anyone’s profile was their latest update and their “people” or friends.

The appeal of Twitter is growing at a rapid rate.  I believe this is partly due to the fact that there are many websites devoted to making Twitter more useful to you as a user.  Several sites are companions to Twitter such as www.twittervision.com.  This site shows the worldwide view of tweets as they happen in real time.  I must say I found this very captivating and brought to life the phrase “it’s a small world”.  Another site that shows the connectivity of Twitter users is www.tweetwheel.com .  This wheel shows you what people in your network are connected to whom.  This is a neat graphic that shows relationships within your circle of contacts.

To understand the interactivity of this particular site, one would need to watch the flow of tweets for a long period of time.  My observations of this site prove this site is a useful and viable tool for literally millions of people.  The accessibility of the site makes is available to users at home, at work, and on the go.  People are able to be connected to those they know, to those that know, and to those who want to know.  This type of community feels the needs of many people both socially and educationally.

References

Brogan, C.  (2007, July 9)  Considering social network etiquette.  Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www.chrisbrogan.com/considering-social-network-etiquette/

Comscore. Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/2007-05-28-social-sites_N.htm

Java, A., Finin, T., Song, X., & Tseng, B. Why we twitter: Understanding microblogging usage and communities.  Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/
_file_directory_/papers/369.pdf

Thompson, C. (2007, June 26).  Clive Thompson on how twitter creates a social sixth sense, Issue 15.07.  Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www.wired.com/techbiz/
media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson

Twitter. (2008)  Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Utecht, J. (2008, May 5).  Human aggregation.  Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www
.techlearning.com/blog/2008/05/human_aggregation.php

Is getting an education the same thing as learning?  This question has been brought up this semester and I think about it often.  I tell my students regularly about how important it is to get an education so they can get a good job.  Reality tells me otherwise though.  After my husband graduated with an associate degree in business management and a bachelor’s degree in business administration, the best job he could find was at the local hospital making minimum wage as a pharmacy tech.  I began working upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences/math at a bank in the loan department at minimum wage.  So we both have this education and where did it get us?  Well, in the process of being educated we learned a whole lot.  We learned how to solve problems, how to manage our time, our to meet deadlines, how to budget our resources, and how to complete tasks.  We learned responsibility and coping strategies to deal with a full-time schedule of classes with requirements we thought we’d never complete, a job sometimes two, and playing college basketball.  Learning to do all that was enough for a bank and a hospital to hire us.  After being hired, we then learned how to do the job.  Once we proved ourselves, we were able to work our way up the ladder.  Now I am no longer at a bank of course, I am a teacher.  But the idea is that we get jobs not because we know a lot.  We get jobs because of our work habits and academic backgrounds.  We keep our jobs because we learn how to do them well through experience.  Our experiences allow us to learn in a way that education cannot and will not ever provide.

How do we use technology to educate?

This was another question posted on Blackboard during Unit 4.  I use technology to help educate my students in ways I couldn’t possibly do in my classroom.  Technology use in my classroom is similar to a field trip.  Field trips are fun, educational, insightful, and teaches things other than just core content objectives.  We’ve all taken kids on trips and have been shocked to find out they’ve never been out of the county.  (My most recent experience included lunch at the mall, a place many of my students had never been inside.)  Technology like that field trip provides students the opportunity to see things in a new perspective, to do things they’ve never done, and do experience the world.  Technology boosts the interest level of many students grabbing their attention and pulling them into the lesson.  Those are some ways technology is used to educate.

How do I use technology to learn?

Technology helps me when I am learning because it gives me access to information very easily.  In fact, technology (and I’m speaking about the Internet) provides me with so much information that it is at times overwhelming.  I really have to have a good understanding of what I’m searching for or I’ll end up with thousands of hits.  This is similar to the prewriting/focusing stage of writing that I used to go through before I used a computer.  I would look up information (probably starting in the card catalog) by making my way around the library, skimming books, articles, and journals, hoping to find just what I needed.  Now I do the same thing except I am doing all of the searching online.  This should save me time but it doesn’t.  I have so many resources available to me now that I think I actually spend more time online.  The result?  I am able to create documents that are better researched, contains more perspectives, and shows the bigger picture of the topic I’m writing about. 

I also use technology to help me learn whenever.  I am very interested in cooking, but I am one that needs a recipe.  Unlike Mom, I cannot just throw in a little of this and a little of that and create an unforgettable dish leaving everyone wanting more.  I can search for recipes and cooking tips whenever I need to very simply online.  Help is only a click away!  So when Mom isn’t available to answer my call about how to make barbecue in the crock pot ( a question I needed answered just last week), I can find chefs from all walks of life able to advise me.

So technology for me makes learning a one-stop shop!

I am still adding people to follow as I run across names of people that have shown up in the blogs in my ‘gator.  It seems as if all the same people are blogging and using twitter and they’re all following each other.  I still am having trouble with the language of the site.  At times it is very difficult for me to understand what is being said.  I also feel as if I am eavesdropping.  I suppose I am.  There seems to be people just updating what they’re doing so the rest of the world will know and then there’s another type of person that uses Twitter.  People that have questions they’re hoping to find answers to.  They’re looking for answers from real live people that know what they’re talking about.  It’s interesting to watch. 

I found this post tonight and I thought it was very well written.  http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2008/05/human_aggregation.php

It is written by Jeff Utecht about the power of Twitter and how it creates a human ‘gator for you.

I really enjoyed reading High-Tech Heretic by Clifford Stoll.  There were times that I actually laughed out loud or reread certain passages aloud to my husband.   I realize that the book is nearly 10 years old, but so many of the things he wrote were very true.  One in particular is the notion that bringing technology to schools will help eliminate the problems schools are having and initiate school reform.  Bringing technology to schools since this books has been written has not eliminated many problems schools face, such as lack of discipline, poor attendance, little or not parental/community involvement, underachievement, and poor teaching strategies.  In fact, I think technology, as suggested by Stoll, just adds additional problems to the pot.  Overall the first section of the book provides countless reasons has to why computers do not belong in schools.  I did not agree with all of them, but many of them were right on.  In the second section, I saw many times where the book was dated but still his message was clear.  Technology and all of its glory (not) cannot and will not solve the problems of the world.  He also talks about the culture of techies and how internet use is changing our socialization. 

There were a few pages in the book where I may have even uttered, “Amen” or “That’s right” or some other phrase in agreement.  I really liked the chapter “Information is Power”.  He poses the question, “How can wiring schools for the internet make students want to learn math or history?”  He goes on to add, “The best way to create a community of loners is for each of us to escape into the welcoming arms of the internet.”  There’s no mention of the SNS that we’ve talked about in this class, but the internet is a very lonely place.  Surfing is not something you can do with your family and friends surrounded around you.  Even chats, emails, IMs,  and SNS do not give you the same connection with people as actually being with them.  Because so many conversations are out there in cyberspace it’s really hard to feel connected to anyone at all.   Keeping up with all those conversations is almost a full-time job!  It’s also hard to completely understand someone’s message without hearing their tone of voice and seeing their body language.  I also am very skeptical of someone’s message because I can’t see them to know who they are and what credentials they have to write about a certain topic.  We enter conversations with people who we really have no clue who they are.  It is true as Stoll said that the internet provides information that is “fast, cheap, and easy” but he goes on to add that “you get what you pay for”.  Many relationships over the internet are built on blind faith, meaning people believe what they read.  To me, that is a little scary.

 In this same chapter,  he goes on to discuss the price of the internet.  We are told we get it for free.  In reality we spend something “far more valuable than dollars”.  We spend our time.  I don’t know how many times I have sat down at the computer to do something very specific and before  you know it I have my personal email open, my work email open, several sites open on the internet, Blackboard open, and hours have passed.  (This happens everytime I go in Walmart too!)  It is especially true when you are taking an internet course(s).  There is no end to the time you can spend.  When you watch tv, the show ends eventually.  Telephone conversations go through some kind of wrap up and then are ended either by choice or because life is happening around you and you want or need to join in.  (My sons always seem to have a fight when I’m on the phone!)  Classes have a start time and an ending time and a professor dare never go over that ending time!!  The internet is not like that.  There is no closing activity, no wrap up, and no end.  In my home, we used to have an office where our computer sat on a desk.  My husband would bring home work he needed to do at times, his art table was in there so he could work on projects, I would bring home things from school and work on them in there, and we also took care of our bills in this room too.  After we had our second child, we were in need of more space.  Basically we needed a play room other than our family room.  So we decided to do away with our “office” and turn it into a play room for the boys.  Our computer was moved to family room and the art stuff, well it’s in a closet now.  This change turned out to work very well.  You see when we had an office, my husband or I would disappear in there and not be seen for, well, sometimes hours.  Now that the computer is in our main living area, we are at least seen by our family members!  My husband is available for his job 24 hours a day.  His email is up and running all the time, and if we aren’t at home, he can be reached by his cell.  I would love for him to sometimes not be connected.  I believe I read about someone giving up their ties to the internet for several days and how that changed their life.  The internet has made us somewhat prisoners in our own homes.

The only chapter that I really didn’t enjoy reading (because I was in disagreement with) was the one about Powerpoint.  A Powerpoint presentation can be a very useful tool.  It is not intended to be read by the speaker, teacher, or presenter.  It is merely a visual tool to help the audience see the main points of your message.  It is not the message itself.  I also think it’s a good prompt.  It helps me see where we are and where we’re going.  I can follow along easier.  I actually liked the idea of using one in church.  It would be like having a projected bulletin.  I may make that suggestion today!

As I am still reading High-Tech Heretic, I am thinking about the extremes we have to deal with.  Is there no happy medium?  Stoll is an interesting read thus far.  He asks if we want computer literate students or literate students.  Everything is so black and white which leaves little room for grey.  Anytime you deal with people and education, there is always a grey area.

Well I did it.  I have created a video about being a 21st century learner.  You’re all invited to check it out here.

I have only made 4 videos to date, but each time I do I gain a new appreciation for those people out there that create videos for all of us to enjoy. 

My district is hosting its first annual technology fair next month.  In preparation for the event, each school is supposed to be registering students to attend.  Students should demonstrate their use of technology and how it helps them learn.  My school had one entry (a powerpoint presentation of an extended educational field trip) as of the registration deadline date, so panic spread across the room during a teachers’ meeting.  Ironically, it was suggested that students just create something on the computer as perhaps an activity they could do when they finish with state testing.  Again, we miss the whole point of the fair.  Using technology for the sake of using technology is wasted time.  On the other hand, integrating technology to enhance learning isbeneficial and would be nice to showcase.  Side-note, I asked if my students could enter their My Space pages.  The answer was no since ten year old aren’t supposed to have My Space accounts.