How Can Twitter be used as a Learning Tool?

If you still haven't got your head around Twitter, don't worry! You'll get there. And it really is a lot more simple than you might think.

It's basically a free social networking tool that connects you with other people and information. People write “tweets” (or posts) of up to 140 characters about what they're up to, what they're reading, anything really or they throw a question out there to be answered. Depending on how many people you are 'following', and how many are 'following' you, there really is a wealth of information at your fingertips that may otherwise be difficult to find. So, that's the basics!

One thing I really like is the ability to search conversations for keywords. You can see if anyone's talking about you or a subject you're interested in.

And one of the coolest things is that you can access a lot of untouchable people on Twitter (@richardbranson) and big brands are now using it to market themselves in a more personal way. As Ben Yoskovitz says 'Twitter is now used quite actively to drive people somewhere - to get them to click through to somewhere. Brands do it. Marketers do it. Everyone does it.'

But does this mean it can be used as a learning tool?

As much as people say it's a marketing tool for business (true - we do have this blog feed hooked up to our twitter account), my main use for it is to discover blog posts and articles relevant to the tech industry and training i.e. learning.

Jeanne Meister of New Learning Playbook sees Twitter as 'a great tool for communicating and asking questions on conference calls and other types of static asynchronous conferencing. The added benefit of this is that using Twitter to connect allows you to keep a record of all the questions and comments, in a manner similar to a blog post."

Mark Needham, Software Developer at Thoughtworks sees the benefits of using it but describes the negative as 'it is hard to follow message trails after the event - you tend to need to be there at the time the discussion is happening to get the most value from it'

Twitter has a lot of learning tool potential. It can be used by trainers to keep students informed about coursework, reading materials, and provide a place for discussion. I don't think you can create groups though, which would mean forums and Facebook still trump Twitter for that purpose.

The only real downfall I see is our own insatiable curiosity for knowledge and our addiction for needing to know what will happen next. Which, may lead us to unknowingly sit there for hours and hours watching the Tweets scroll by!

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