YES! The thing is that there are early adopters, adopters that come on board eventually and those that don’t want to adopt (not saying that is necessarily bad, just saying it’s something that happens).

But to get back to the question, why has Twitter taken off? Because the time is right…more educators are getting into this technology (finally) and/or being “allowed” to. There has been a fear from “some” educators not thinking it’s a tool to be used and uneducated parents/administrators, etc. who think it’s a waste of time. We’ve all been pushed to use the “traditional/Industrial Revolution” method of teaching. The world of education is slow to evolve.

It may also be that Twitter is fast enough and slow enough. Twitter is chat that is fast enough for those not needing an instant message and slow enough to not need constant user attention.

Another reason is the usability. It’s easier than discussion boards because you don’t have to drill down to read information. For our tasks it’s simple, especially compared to Facebook. Twitter is all there to see in one flat file. You don’t even have to jump through hopes to create groups like Facebook has you do. You can do it instantly with hash tags. To see a person’s Facebook you don’t need to ask to be their friend, in Twitter you can just follow them.

Perhaps most importantly there’s nothing that keeps the user out because it’s all public (yes, you can have it private if you choose). And what do educators like to do? Share of course!

Not thinking clearly today. Hope that made sense.

I don’t know where we will go next, but right now twitter works for me. I love that my ‘digital posse’ has gone global. That I can feel connected to something bigger then my own work issues and celebrations. Until the new thing comes around… I’m riding the ‘wave of collaboration’…