Perhaps the biggest lesson was that it helps to have the support of the event and to announce a hashtag for the event. Without that, most of our 17 participants wouldn't have known about each other... (Thanks, Val).

On June 15th I attended a workshop in Charleston on WebTop (which I’ve talked about in some detail here and here).

The workshop was actually a five-in-one set of hour-long mini-workshops. We were introduced to a tool for creating electronic portfolios (ePearl) and a virtual classroom (Manhattan). We got a look at developments in the evolution of our state’s student records system, WVEIS (and we were cautioned, on pain of death, that we could no longer call it “Wee-vus,” but had to say the letters – “dubya-vee-ee-eye-es”). We were given an introduction to Google Sites (which is embedded as a tool on the new virtual desktop). And we got to see how the desktop and its accompanying social network, WebTop Communities, works.

I tweeted.

Now, I know there will be some of you thinking, “What does that mean?” It means I used Twitter to record my thoughts and experiences as the workshops progressed. Twitter is a microblogging tool that allows users to publish statements of up to 140 characters in length. And I live tweeted the workshop – publishing about 30 Twitter posts (or “tweets”) as the day progressed.

Twitter uses something they call a hashtag to track topics. So I put the hashtag #WVDE in my posts, but that only works for a week. You can find things I’ve posted to Twitter at my Twitter page: http://twitter.com/gregcruey.

Live tweeting is quickly replacing live blogging of conferences and events.

Below is a list of tweets I posted during the workshops. I’ve arranged them in chronological order, even though almost any Twitter client tool would present them with the most recent post first.

• Tweeting from a workshop in Charleston WV 2day ay Capital HS. Workshop on WebTop, the new virtual desktop. #WVDE #WebTop
  7:46am Jul 15th

• Starting with a tool called ePearl. We’re in small groups in computer labs and we are on the same keyboard all day. Nice… #WVDE #WebTop
  8:27am Jul 15th

• Presenter for ePearl: Donna Landen http://wvde.state.wv.us/dir… eLearnign Coordinator #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  8:32am Jul 15th

• Toying with customizing the appearance of ePearl. Students can pick images and color themes they like. #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  8:53am Jul 15th

• ePearl is open source. Nice. #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  8:54am Jul 15th

• Naming/color coding folders. Students can color code folders to show level of completeness – so teacher can assess it. #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  9:10am Jul 15th

• Discussing how ePearl could be interfaced with other software – like techSteps and Writing Roadmap. #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  9:12am Jul 15th

• Looking at example of student portfolio. Teacher has included a rubric. Includes a box where teacher types comments. #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  9:16am Jul 15th

• ePortfolios provide a way to fix Pontius Pilate Syndrome: “What I have written, I have written.” Get kids to edit. #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  9:22am Jul 15th

• Resource section for ePearl includes both text and video based tutorials. #WVDE #ePearl #WebTop
  9:23am Jul 15th

• Next up, Fernando Ibanez on Manhattan Virtual Classroom http://wvde.state.wv.us/dir… #WVDE #PBL #WebTop
  9:58am Jul 15th

• Manhattan is intended to facilitate project based learning for Teach 21 wvde.state.wv.us/tea… #WVDE #PBL #WebTop
  9:59am Jul 15th

• Creating a class on Manhattan. WVDE has given 500 mg of space to students for their ePearl portfolios #ePearl #WVDE #PBL #WebTop
  10:10am Jul 15th

• Looking at modules available within Manhattan course. 17 different module formats that can be used in combination. #WVDE #PBL #WebTop
  10:20am Jul 15th

• Discussing the possibility of interfacing Manhattan & Writing Road Map. #WVDE #PBL #WebTop #WRM2
  10:34am Jul 15th
  
  
• I received this tweet from… ladyvolhoops@gregcruey 17 modules for what
  10:43am JUL 15th

• I received this tweet from… ladyvolhoops@gregcruey i am sitting in a conference with people doing pbl globally. listening to how it is done in italy
  10:43am JUL 15th

• I received this tweet from… ladyvolhoops@gregcruey r they looking at eports for how many years. 5oo mgs would not be enough if done correctly for 9-1210:44am Jul 15th
  
  
• @ladyvolhoops Modules that can be used in structuring a class for Manhattan Virtual Classroom -open source, in WebTop #PBL
  10:45am Jul 15th

• Adding students to Manhattan classroom. Searchable list of candidates based on people in the WVDE WebTop System #WVDE #PBL #WebTop
  10:46am Jul 15th

• @ladyvolhoops epearl in WebTop for ePorts. Can be uped to 1 gig on request. ePearl can be passed on 2 next grade #ePearl
  10:49am Jul 15th
  

• I received this tweet from… ladyvolhoops@gregcruey y would you want a virtual classroom? what r they saying is the purpose?
  10:50am Jul 15th
  
  
• @ladyvolhoops Fernando says it helps manage the interaction between face-to-face teaching and online tools. #PBL #WebTop #WVDE
  10:53am Jul 15th

• Discussing how teach21 can be used inside Manhattan Virtual Classroom. #WVDE #Teach21 #PBL #WebTop
  10:54am Jul 15th
  
  
• I received this tweet from… ladyvolhoops@gregcruey don’t mean to be a pain, but what is fernando basing this on? we already do this in our school without a virtual class
  10:55am Jul 15th
  
  
• @ladyvolhoops No pain…I suppose it’s just an alternative format. It’s a free open source tool. But, bout to break for lunch…
  10:59am Jul 15th

• Session 3 is on WVEIS. Presenter Richard Pullin http://wvde.state.wv.us/dir… #WVDE #WVEIS
  11:39am Jul 15th
  
  
• I received this tweet from…jonbecker@gregcruey I worked with lots of OIS folks a while ago when WVEIS was a system way ahead of its time. Made for great research databases
  11:42am Jul15th
  
  
• @jonbecker We’re basically getting a run down of what WVEIS can do. FERPA prevents much hands on work in a workshop. #WVDE #WVEIS
  11:55am Jul 15th

• WVEIS (our student records) has gone from a tedious DOS-sorta application to being web based. Much nicer, more user friendly. #WVDE #WVEIS
  11:59am Jul 15th

• Presenter: Jeff Takarsh on Google Sites #WVDE #GoogleSites #WebTop http://wvde.state.wv.us/dir…
  12:57pm Jul 15th

• The WebTop virtual desktop uses Google Sites as a tool and links from that virtual desktop. #WVDE #GoogleSites #WebTop
  12:58pm Jul 15th

• Creating a new Google Site – practice, basically. #WVDE #GoogleSites #WebTop
  1:05pm Jul 15th

• All normal Google Sites stuff. But the account comes thru the Department of Ed. Keeps personal things separate. #WVDE #GoogleSites #WebTop
  1:39pm Jul 15th

• Presenter: Chris Casto http://wvde.state.wv.us/dir… on WebTop Communities #WVDE #WebTop
  1:55pm Jul 15th

• WebTop Communities is a closed social network (much like Facebook) for WV educators and (eventually) students #WVDE #WebTop
  1:56pm Jul 15th

• WV’s WebTop Communities page is available in 28 (twenty-eight) langauges, from Arabic to Vietnamese… #WVDE #WebTop
  2:11pm Jul 15th

• Hadn’t noticed the bookmarking feature in WebTop Communities before. I can share bookmarks with WebTop friends. #WVDE #WebTop
  2:20pm Jul 15th

• WebTop Communities gives me a gig of storage space separate from the gig I have at the WebTop desktop. #WVDE #WebTop
  2:21pm Jul 15th

• Looking at creating communities in WebTop Communities. Any WebTop user can create communities. #WVDE #WebTop
  2:30pm Jul 15th

• “Any WebTop user can create communities.” Check that: students will NOT be able to create communities. #WVDE #WebTop
  2:34pm Jul 15th

• Well, headed home…
  2:45pm Jul 15th
  

I wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago on an instructor at a community college in Texas who’s used Twitter to facilitate discussions in his history class. I’m guessing that similar applications would work in high school classrooms. Of course, Twitter in the classroom provides some liabilities regarding privacy and publishing student work. Maybe a parent’s signature on an acceptable use policy gets around that; I’m not sure…

Angie Dowling (teaches in Morganton, I think), pointed me to a microblogging platform with greater security, designed for educators: Edmodo (article at TechCrunch). I don’t know it the law is keeping up with technology, or whether having a closed (passworded) platform gets past the liabilities involved or not. Having a closed system with limited participants certainly serves to manage traffic. But there are other ways to do that – Twitter groups or communities.

I use Twitter as part of a personal learning network. I follow 130 160 people on Twitter at the moment. It’s one way I know, for example, that Scott McLeod (Dangerously Irrelevant) is having a summer book study and that Wesley Fryer (Moving at the Speed of Creativity) had a new post yesterday on copyright and the idea of creating a culture of information sharing (“sharing by default”). Of course, Twitter overlaps with my RSS reader for this. But I have a few dozen people in Twitter who

• don’t write a blog
• work as educators, often with some job focus on technology and
• will often answer questions I ask on Twitter, especially if I direct the question specifically at them.

Twitter is a marvelous professional development tool, IMHO.

Instructional use? If you can do it with chat, you can probably do it with Twitter. Slightly different limitations. You have to be a little more succinct. But you can create clickable links. And there’s a more-or-less permanent record automatically created. AcademHack has some interesting ideas for Twitter assignments. An example of middle school use is at Digital Directions (Education Week).

Backing away to a slightly broader perspective, Twitter (or one of the other microblogging platforms) is fast becoming basic literacy behavior for the 21st Century. If I can find ANYTHING that encourages kids to write words down and send them to each other in a socially productive framework, THAT’s a win. Literacy behavior as a form of social interaction is what social networking is about. It should be part of the educational environment for a 21st Century school. If I had my way, every child in the intermediate grades at my school would have a microblogging platform and a social network presence (like WebTop) where social networking skills could be practiced and modeled, and they’d have access to a keyboard as often as possible so they could READ other people’s replies to them.

I neglected to mention that microblogging is becoming a communication tool that businesses use to to allow employees to communicate with each other in the workplace – kind of a replacement for email. A microblog post could be used instead of an intercom system for announcements (”Teachers: please keep students out of the down stairs boys bathroom until further notice while the custodian deals with a plumbing issue…“). Of course, that relies on the idea that teacher will actually use the microblog.

Can this be used in secondary school classrooms? Probably. I think I might could make it useful even in the intermediate grades…

If you’re a West Virginia educator and you Tweet, add yourself to this group, WVTeach, so that other educators in the state can find you. Think of it as part of your personal learning community.