This short article by Rhea Kelly, published in Campus Technology on 1 March 2008 has some positive things to report about Twitter. (I was struggling to find much of a use for it, too!) She starts by lamenting the trend towards no longer reading books now that it's so much easier and quicker to read online sources such as blogs and so on.
She describes the experience of Dave Parry, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. After using Twitter with his students he suggested that what it IS good for is - "getting a sense of the world (what people around the globe are paying attention to at any moment); tracking language trends (how a word is used from post to post, or how the 140-character limit can affect spelling, grammar and communication); and utilizing a "public notepad"(gaining inspiration from the creativity of others)."
Parry feels that Twitter "can enhance a sense of classroom community". Twittering students came to see their fellow students as real people and not just fellow students they saw for a short time each week. They were more likely to speak up in and out of class and, even when not in class, to continue to discuss isssues raised in class. This, Parry said, reinforced and connected the issues and the real world.
In conclusion, Kelly says she'll be twittering some book recommendations as a way of encouraging people to read, or read more.
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