Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Has Twitter lost its hype with only a minority of big users?
According to a Harvard study of 300,000 users, reported by the BBC (among others) today, just 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content.
I can believe it - we all know that some people tweet not only several times a day but several times an hour. It's in the nature of statistics that such prolific people will skew the data. Of course, those people are not necessarily those who post the most useful information.
We train people how to use Twitter and we're not under any illusions - for some people it will turn out to be useful, it will work for them and suit their way of working. For others it's an interesting experiment that doesn't persist, but they have to try it to find out - and that's probably why Nielsen, who also surveyed people on Twitter, found that more than 60% of (in thier case US) Twitter users fail to return the following month. The Harvard team found that more than half of all people using Twitter update their page less than once every 74 days.The most ridiculous bit of statistics bashing was to say that "most people only ever "tweet" once during their lifetime" - erm - that's clearly an average and I suspect there are very few who tweet once and never again!
The researchers at Harvard also stated that "Twitter resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network," but that's something I very much disagree with. I've had several mutliway conversations, and many more people who read the conversations but don't necessarily get involved. It is ostensible a one to one or one- to-many commmunication channel, but those of us who use it often have turned it into something more.
Of course, whether that usage can continue is another matter. There are many reasons why Twitter may not last as a really useful tool, not least the recent unsavoury rash of porn-touting followers. Once again a reason NEVER to auto-follow the people who follow you!Labels: research, social networking, twitter
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:51 AM
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
E:LESIG - for researchers of the student experience
I've just welcomed the 71st member to the new Ning community for ELESIG. It's great to see so many e-learning researchers and practitioners who have an interest in the learner experience. The take up for the community and for the inaugural workshop - was it only last week? - has been excellent and just shows what a need there is for a network of practice in this area.
Next job will be to get the directory of projects up and running - that's in pbwiki so that those associated with each project can edit and update the information about their work.
If you are interested in this Special Interest Group for studying the student's experience of e-learning, join us at ELESIG.NingLabels: elesig, learner experience, Ning, online community, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:48 AM
Monday, 5 November 2007
Links for week commencing 5th November
The Bazaar - Home
http://www.bazaar.org/
The Bazaar - portal for Open Source for Learning in Europe
The Bazaar is a community portal for people who want to use, exchange and share Open Source Software and resources to support learning.
Distance Learning through Telematics
http://www2.plymouth.ac.uk/distancelearning
The University of Plymouth's e-learning website, containing regularly updated pages of research, projects, events, personnel and news on e-learning, web 2.0 and distance education. Also holds course content including handouts, workshop materials and PowerPoint presentations for free download.
World map of social networks
http://valleywag.com/networks-273201.php
A map of the world, showing the dominant social networks by country, according to Alexa. Very different in different countries. Facebook has sway in the UK, but hi5 is the most international network…
Coming Of Age: An Introduction To The NEW Worldwide Web
by Terry Freedman et al.
http://fullmeasure.co.uk/Coming_of_age_v1-2.pdf
Ebook (2006)Labels: e-learning, ebook, elearning, links, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:37 AM
Monday, 22 October 2007
Links for week commencing 22nd October
Some interesting social software for learning:
Ecto
http://www.ectolearning.com/
Their blurb: "Ecto is a hosted, open networked Personal Learning Environment. Use Ecto to transform learning into an interactive, collaborative, and student centered activity. Ecto is the only learning management system built from the ground up on the principles and architecture of social software."
It's an online service and at the moment you can join for free although it's a commercial offering. At the moment it looks pretty vanilla - it seems to be social networking aimed at learning and teaching, nothing really new about it.
ELGG
http://elgg.org/
Elgg is an open source social platform based around choice, flexibility and openness: a system that firmly places individuals at the centre of their activities. ELGG is being used by a LOT of universities and educational organisations, but you do need a server to run it on so it's not a solution for individuals.Labels: e-learning, education sector, elearning, FE, HE, online learning, social networking, universities, VLE, web applications
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:20 AM
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
ALT-C presentations on Tuesday
I was certainly nodding at Tim Rudd's exhortation to us to think about learning spaces for the future without being "held back" by starting from where we are now. We must not be bound by cultures and habits from existing methods of teaching and assessment - let's be innovative!
That people are hidebound was demonstrated in the last session I went to. Gill Kirkup of the OU had surveyed students on whether they wanted to use blogs, for learning or otherwise. Not surprisingly they said no - well they probably had no clear idea of how blogs might be used to support their learning. Not until they have experienced an innovative and effective course design involving relevant use of blogs will they appreciate their usefulness. In the mobile learning symposium, John Traxler discussed how difficult it was to ask people what they want - because they give the answer they think you want, they are affected by culture and assumptions and taking things for granted...
John Traxler also reminded us to think differently about the future, talking about the serendipity that gave us Teflon, post-its and SMS.
I was interested to see from Marion Miller that the JISC RSC Summer Conference in Yorkshire and Humberside had a very successful social network set up on Ning. It was interesting that competitions were held with prizes for content - a good push to get people started with contributing - if you can afford it!Labels: ALT-C2007, altc2007, beyond control, learning technologies, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 7:44 PM
Friday, 3 August 2007
Join me on the Creativity in E-Learning network
Labels: creativity, e-learning, education sector, elearning, FE, HE, learning and teaching, learning technologies, social networking, universities, Web 2.0
posted by Helen Whitehead 4:06 PM
Monday, 2 July 2007
Pay me to be you online?
Rory Cellan-Jones writing on the BBC website says
"I met somebody the other day who told me that online networking was so important, and he didn't have the time, he was paying somebody to be him online. To blog, network, post etc . £1,000 a month too. "
I would like to state for the record - I'm available! Ten years of experience in online social networks (yes they did exist 10 years ago, they just didn't have a trendy label) has to count for something.
Labels: online identity, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 1:04 PM
