I just can’t keep up. Sorry. I love following the blogs of the top names in ed tech. Then along comes Twitter, where you can post what you are up to in 140 characters or less from a cell phone, constantly, and its the new rage. Honestly, when one person generates an average of 10-20 tweets per day, enough is enough.
Do I need to know when someone’s plane is delayed? Do I need to see an ad for a new blog post? (hint – no – my aggregator will tell me when there is one). What I need is a manageable stream of thought and conversation, with the emphasis on manageable.
I do not have a Twitter account, but I have been following some top names in ed tech via the RSS feed from their Twitter pages. If I actually tried to follow more than a handful, it would become a fulltime job, and the information garnered from knowing what they are up to at any given moment would not be worth it.
Is there value to being able to plug into a network of experts, on call from anywhere in the world? Sure, but there are other ways, too. Twitter is cell phone IM, so you can literally be connected anywhere, anytime. Once the newness wears off, its just another way to banter. I have better things to do on a daily, hourly, and minute-ly basis.
I’m looking for value in being this connected, and so far I’m not seeing it.
With apologies to the best, brightest people in educational technology, whose opinions and thoughts I absolutely respect and aspire to replicate in my own work…
To borrow and repurpose the title of Susan Powter’s weight loss book – Stop the Insanity!