The power of micro-interaction
From: Karen Bonanno
In the Horizon Report: 2013 K-12 Edition one of the key trends identified is: “Social media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information, and communicate.”
One difficulty often experienced by teacher librarians is convincing the decision-makers of the school that new technologies have a place in the teaching and learning program.
Another is the time it takes to master the technology and to then integrate it into the classroom practice.
Over that last 12 months Twitter has raced up the rankings (sitting amongst the top 8 web sites tracked by Alexa) as a free social networking and micro-blogging tool that enables users to send and read messages known as tweets. These are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.
If you want some background information on Twitter for librarians then take a visit to Phil Bradley’s website and check out the two introductory videos – setting up an account, writing your first tweet, searching Twitter, following someone and surviving the first 24 hours.
How can you use Twitter in the school library?
Because you only have 140 characters you need to be clear and concise in what you want to say. Using Twitter to host announcements is very common. For example:
- New resources notice
- School library events
- Alerts for web links
You could use Twitter to promote the school library outreach services. For example:
- Your range of literacy programs, e.g. information, digital, media.
- Reading programs
- ICT learning support
- Research programs
- Teacher / classroom support
Even special interest group activities can be accommodated. You might have various groups who use the school library as their base, e.g. chess club, parents & friends, tuckshop/canteen helpers. Your Twitter “service” can support them by hosting notices.
Now, if you want to include a URL in your Tweet post you will probably need to “shorten” the URL so I would suggest you use bit.ly – this site allows you to enter those very long URLs (especially those from the newspapers) so that you end up with something short and sweet to post in your Tweet.
If blogging is your preferred option for micro-interaction then I’d suggest you visit to our report – How to have a successful school library or classroom blog .
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