My Twitter Playground

Can you come out and play?

This week I have called on my Twitter neighborhood to help me try out two new tech tools. And the 'hood did not let me down!


1. Earlier this week I learned about grouptweet. Needing a group to see if it would work, I asked for some volunteers.

lizbdavis I've lost who tweeted this http://www.grouptweet.com/ Group Tweet - It looks like it has a lot of potential. Anyone want to try it with me? 01:47 PM April 09, 2008 from twhirl

Well, I got many takers and we had a great time setting up a group (@edutweets) and trying it out. Here are just a few.

	drctedd @lizbdavis I'll try it - it might be useful with classes and faculty groups 01:02 PM April 09, 2008 from twhirl in reply to lizbdavis
	georgygrrl @lizbdavis did you find someone? i am game! 01:56 PM April 09, 2008 from twhirl in reply to lizbdavis
	Deacs84 @lizbdavis Would love to experiment with Group Tweet. Lemme know. 01:51 PM April 09, 2008 from twhirl in reply to lizbdavis
	dstall @lizbdavis I'm Game!!! 12:50 PM April 09, 2008 from web in reply to lizbdavis

To use grouptweet:

1. Set up an account on Twitter (I set up @edutweets)
2. Register it on the grouptweet website
3. Tell your friends (the people you want to have in the group) to follow that account.
4. When anyone direct messages @edutweets, all of edutweets followers will see that tweet. If you don't protect updates, then anyone can join the group, and @edutweets doesn't have to follow them back.
5. To direct message @edutweets start your tweet with D edutweets
6. If you don't want to miss anything, you can subscribe to the RSS of @edutweets with friends: http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/14343998.atom

If you protect updates, then you will have to approve followers. I think that would work really well with kids. Create a group for your class and have the students follow the group.

This group is open, please follow @edutweets if you want to give it a try.

2. Last night I again asked for help trying out a collaborative Whiteboard space called Twiddla. Again, my tweeps were there for me.


lizbdavis Does anyone want to try twiddla with me? I'm trying to figure it out. Try this link: http://www.twiddla.com/15909 about 12 hours ago from twhirl

I had several takers. We chatted and explored the space. We asked questions and tried things out. It was a lot of fun. You can see a transcript of our chat here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfnmfqtd_321hcn4kn7x I think it really illustrates our learning process.

Here is summary of what we discovered.

• Anyone can join the space if it open.
• No one seemed to be in control of the space - all of us could erase the board, write on the board, bring up a webpage and change what was on the screen at any time.
• As the creator of the space, I didn't seem to have any more privileges than anyone else.
• The chat worked well, unfortunately, there isn't a way to pop it off the page so that you can see the whole page.
• You can move the chat window from right to left.
• We couldn't play videos from YouTube, but the embedded videos on my blog did play.
• We couldn't get the audio to work.
• Kids could use a space like this to collaborate on research. Search the Web, and chat.
• You could use it to demo something Online with distance learners.
• You could use Skype for the audio.

Twiddla is free and easy to use. It has a lot of potential. It will be interesting to see how it evolves. The space I created is still there (I'm not sure how long it will be there) if you want to click on the link and try it out.

Thanks to everyone who came out to play this week. It was a lot of fun! What did you think?
-Liz