Answer the question: what are you doing now?
Discover what your friends are doing and saying--and who their friends are
Watch trends and news develop "in the moment" - e.g., twitter traffic around the world
Real-time searching
Locating topical information and opinions
Locating friends, finding new ones and following them
Keeping informed about what's happening to your friends and vice versa
Evaluating the credibility of an author by his or her tweets and friends
Numerous Apps created for Twitter - interesting search resources, e.g. looking for keywords? Try Twitter Spectrum
Establish an account or log in (optional)
Search for a topic or user (go to sign in for search box)
Explore Twitter Aps for ways to manage information on Twitter
Try out a twitter search engine, e.g., Topsy.com, to see who's tweeting about what
Challenge: Search Twitter to see how much and what kind of traffic the Economic Crisis is attracting compared to Global Warming. During the recent election, comparing traffic for candidates was revealing. During the Winter Olympics you can see what events and personalities attract the most attention.
Discuss: How could real-time search be useful in school? How can this tool be used to create a personal learning network? What difficulties might be encountered?
©2010 Information Fluency
