Before I go any further into my post, I had considered typing it up again from my phone and then tweeting about it on my phone, and achieve some form of synergy between three forms of social media that we have talked about this semester, a kind of cumulative demonstration, if you will.  Instead, I went the traditional route, simply because I can type faster on my computer.

Now, back to the topic. What’s the topic? Ah, yes, Twitter.  Twitter is perfect for the “gotta have information yesterday” world we appear to be living in nowadays.  Also, there are a TON of people that use it.  Celebs, politicos, news services, companies, even ordinary citizens like you and me can use Twitter.  With so many people tweeting out there, the idea of legitimacy is a huge issue.  Well, I found a place where you can find some of the highest authorities who are utilizing Twitter.  It is called twittorati.com.  What they do is take the top 100 bloggers according to Technorati and then posts them. It’s really cool.

Now that you’ve joined so that you can get instant information from all the people/organizations you want to, you might as well start tweeting as well.  But how can you maximize your use of Twitter? Well, twitip.com may have some answers.  It has tools and tips as well as a blog for Twitter users to access for information.

Moving on, you’ve joined, figured out how to maximize your use of Twitter, but you still don’t have any idea of how it will benefit you.  Well, after a quick Google search, I found a blog that offers 9 reasons why Twitter is useful for bloggers.

During my time as a journalist, there was only one rule when it came to news releases: only run them when you positively, absolutely can’t do any reporting on the topic whatsoever. Otherwise, go out to the source of the news and write an original article. In my experience as a sports journalist, however, I didn’t really run into many news releases that we had to run.  In a town (Tuscaloosa) with an SEC school (Alabama), we were close enough to get the actual story from the athletic department because we were literally only 5-8 minutes (depending on traffic) from the athletic department’s building on campus. As for the numerous high schools that were in our coverage area, they weren’t really in the business of news releases. We usually had to generate any stories that were not straight reports from a game.

Because of all this, I don’t really know what I can contribute to the discussion about social news media releases.  What I can do, however, is give it the old College try.

A helpful template for what a social news media release can look like can be found here.  From an aesthetic perspective, it is a really sharp-looking document.  I would love to have this come across my desk if I were still working for a news organization.  Not only would I be drawn to it because of it being in a non-black-and-white format, but also because it provides me with options, and as a journalist I always liked having options so that I wouldn’t feel pigeonholed into doing something I didn’t want to.  By options, I mean that when I get a social news media release, I can put it on my organization’s Facebook page (if we have one), link it on my website via RSS, post an audio clip to my website, or post a video to my website, as opposed to only having the option to run it in the newspaper and take up valuable space.

In education, I think I can use these  as well, though it may be a stretch.  I really can’t see a use for these in an English classroom (though I am open to suggestions), but I do think I could use them in a high school Journalism class.  I think it would serve as a great way to teach students about news values and the decisions they may have to make if they were to become editors.  I think that this form may be a little bit easier to relate it to students.  I also think it would be valuable to introduce these things early on in a student’s journalism career because the industry is moving more and more towards these forms of communication, and if they are comfortable with them, then they won’t be intimidated at a job.

In addition to its entertainment value, YouTube is a useful tool as well. I have a friend who learned how to play the piano on nothing else but YouTube videos.  You can learn almost anything you can think of through videos that have been posted.  It is simple to post videos you have created on their web site, and then use the link they give you for your own web site.

In the classroom, though, I think YouTube can be a lifesaver.  For me, YouTube has every, single School House Rock video I think they ever made, in high quality.  This may be a cop-out, but the songs they come up with for grammar concepts are very easily remembered (at least for me they are) and they can really help students remember them outside of the classroom.  They’re also a break from the norm, which students always welcome. Also, if somebody else can explain grammar (which is my weak area) I am welcome for any help I can get. In that vein, here are some of my favorites:

I promise, I will have a Podcast up on this post at some point. Just not right now.  Just because I don’t have one on here doesn’t mean we can’t talk about them though, right? Right!

I have had to make a Podcast only once, for a technology class.  It was about simile and metaphor, and I wasn’t particularly pleased with the final product. I got a 15/15, though, so my professor must have been. In the education field, I see several possible applications for the use of Podcasting within my classroom.  The most prominent one in my mind is the ability of me as a teacher to do review Podcasts for my students.  I would still have to do paper reviews in class, however, for those students who do not have access to an iPod and couldn’t listen to the Podcast if they wanted to.

Another really cool thing that I think I can use Podcasts for is an option for students as an end-of-unit assessment.  After we have finished up reading a piece of lit, how much fun would it be if instead of writing a humongous paper, you did a Podcast instead? I would like it a lot.  One thing that would make this viable would be if what I really wanted to assess the student’s ability to discuss a text, their organization of ideas, really their critical thinking skills instead of their actual writing ability.  If I had been doing small writing assignments as we went along, the Podcast would be a fun final assignment option for students.

Now, you’re probably all wondering: okay, so he’s talked about all these uses for Podcasts, but does he actually use them for himself? Well, I would lying if I said I really got into it before this past week’s lesson.  It’s really about being disciplined enough to listen to the episodes after you download them so that they don’t just pile up and you don’t end up listening to any of them.  Browsing iTunes, though, there are a myriad number of topics that people are Podcasting about (a.k.a “you can find one on something that interests you”). Looking through the education section of Podcasts, you can learn a foreign language through Podcasts alone (or at least enough to function as a tourist if you go abroad).  There are even education Podcasts for educators.  I subscribed to a Podcast that gave small tips on grammar usage. There was also an ESL one, which I thought was interesting.  Additionally, here are the other Podcasts that I found while I was browsing that I subscribed to:

-IGN Games Podcasts

-Three Red Lights (Xbox 360 Podcast)

-Podcast beyond (PS3 Podcast)

-Nintendo Voice Chat (Wii Podcast)

-Critical Hit (Dungeons and Dragons Podcast)

-Dragon’s Landing (Ideas for tabletop RPGs Podcast)

-Meeple’s and Miniatures (Tabletop miniature games Podcasts)

-Grammar Girl (Grammar tips Podcast)

As an educator, I think forums have some potential use.  For one, the ability to have discussions with other secondary teachers about issues that come up in a classroom is a good resource to have, because someone somewhere has had a similar situation come up in their own classroom.  Also, forums make it easier to share lesson plans with other teachers, so that we can get ideas for subject material, or can just use a lesson plan in its entirety.

One problem I have with forums is how easy it is for people to steer discussion off topic within a discussion thread.  Also, the ability for people to spam comments on a discussion thread can discourage people from wanting to get really involved in a forum.  Both of these can be solved with a good administrator, though.

Links O’Interest:

Educator’s Forum

Teacher’s Corner

Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about social networking.  Don’t you remember when only college students could join Facebook? I do.  It was before games, status updates and chat.  In my opinion, Facebook has gotten out of control.  There are other options, though, for social networking, though they don’t necessarily have the same wide-spread appeal of Facebook:

LinkedIn

MySpace

Xanga

Despite my complaints of the massive size of Facebook, I can’t help but use it.  It, like other social networking sites, makes it very convenient for me to find all of my friends in one place and rapidly communicate with them.  I almost use the messaging function on Facebook more than I do my e-mail.  I still don’t play games on it, that’s why I have a PS3 and an Xbox.  I also think that the opportunity Facebook provides to make contacts in the business world, and allow you to maintain contact with them easier than it may be with regular e-mail.

With all of the great things that can come with social networking, a sprinkling of caution should accompany it.  For one, everyone can see what you put onto your social networking page.  Everything.  With that in mind, everyone doesn’t need to see those crazy pics from last night’s kegger.  Especially if your boss knows you have a Facebook page.  Also, everyone isn’t who they say they are on Facebook/MySpace/whatever you use:

ReadWriteWeb article

For even more information about RSS, and how they are different from other ways to find information, here are some great sites:

What’s the difference between blogs and RSS?

Blog Directory and RSS submission site

http://www.thebarkinglabrador.com

I would really like y’all to follow it and offer me feedback on what I write.