Twitter, Education, and Family

While Twitter's moto is "What are you doing?", I am actually not going to talk about the status update aspect of twitter. Sure, you can tell people what you ate for lunch or what you're listening to, but those aren't the best aspects of twitter- at least not education wise.

FOR STUDENTS.
Let's say you're running a club (or sport) - one with daily or weekly notices perhaps? What would be easier?

1. Telling all of the members to write down their email addys, typing them into your contacts, and then writing a mail with all of the contacts added? (and pray you didn't miss someone)
2. When you give out the club's membership sheet, write a single twitter for all of the members to check..

Does # 2 sound easier? I suppose it's because it IS easier.
The members just have to check the club's twitter on a regular basis to see the notes you've written.

But what if they don't check? Or they check too late?
My oh My, these members can get a twitter profile of their own and FOLLOW the club's twitter. That means all of the club's twitters will appear on their twitter page.

But what if they don't check their own twitter page?
I'm glad you were thinking that. I personally don't check my own twitter page unless I'm on a school computer. Why? My Firefox at home has a add-on that will notify me of new messages. Actually there are loads of Firefox add-ons, as well as computer programs (I suppose for those who don't use Firefox), that will notify you of messages without logging in to twitter. They just show up in a format similar to IM'ing.

But what if they're not on a computer?
Well you can actually opt to have twitter messages arrive to your phone. (Obviously only people with a monthly flat rate should do this). Best part is you can actually choose which of the people you follow want to appear on your phone. After all, you may want to receive text messages from your club's twitter, but maybe not from your overtalkative best friend's twitter.

FOR PARENTS
Has this ever happened to you?
You (child) wanted to go somewhere so you texted one (or both) of your parents as to where you're going. Problem is: One (or both) of them doesn't know how to read a phone's text message.
You (parent) just found out your mother-in-law is visiting so you need to warn all of your kids that they must be home early today. Problem is: some of your kids don't answer the phone or don't check it very often.

Example of what I'm talking about:
Mom: Where the heck were you? I've been worried sick.
Daughter: I was at Cassidy's house. I told Dad.
Mom: Your father's still at work. How would I know? From now on you have to tell me!
Well the great thing about twitter is that all family members can follow each other.

What if one of my parents is from the stone age and can't work a computer?
Make the twitter for them.
Bookmark your parent's twitter page.

Then just explain that all he/she has to do is turn on the computer, put the browser on, then click on the bookmark and read the messages.
If you want you could even explain how to log in and write a message. It's not that hard and will be a lot easier than trying to explain how to work a phone. (My mother for example can't check phone text messages. I've tried to teach her but she can't seem to understand. However she can read directions so if I put a post-it explaining how to check a twitter she would have an easy time).

Or get a simple twitter program.

What about privacy?
You can set your settings to private so that only people you follow, who follow you back, can see messages.
Also, you're allowed more than one account. So you could have your family account, and your everything else account. Once again, there are programs out there that will remember multiple accounts so you can easily switch back and forth.

FOR TEACHERS.

This is exactly the same as the "For Students" section except that instead of club notices, we're talking about teacher notices (tests dates, project dates, etc...)

TWITTER PROGRAMS
Twitter Fox- Firefox Addon. It's a little box that allows you to see receive messages and send messages. (screenshot featured on right side)
Twitbin- Firefox Addon. Same principle as TwitterFox except the box is in the browser's sidebar (For those who don't know what a sidebar is. It's like a mini page on the left of your browser).
Twhirl- Computer program. I suppose those of you without Firefox should use this. It runs on XP, vista, and mac OSX.