Seems the micro-bogging service Twitter turned 3 over the weekend while I was away camping with my son at his scout camp!

I remember joining up with Twitter soon after it started, thinking at the time ” oh well, I’ll give this a week to see how it pans out!” (and secretly thinking – who on earth would want to know what I’m up to every few minutes of the day! 🙂 ) Now, three years later, I have around 200 people I follow on a regular basis, and a few hundred more who follow what I’m up to.

Through my Twitter connections I am made aware of heaps of things happening out there in the education world, pointed towards useful resources and articles, participated in pop-quizzes and involved myself in impromptu workshops around the world. It’s a service I now have open on my desktop every day using the freely down-loadable Tweetdeck application which provides me with both a running commentary of the things everyone is saying, plus the added advantage of listing separately the replies made specifically to my “tweets” (which saves me time threading back through heaps of posts to find them!).

Nottingham-based Tom Barrett used Twitter to help him develop his Twenty-One Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom. The slideshow contains a range of suggestions on how Twitter could be used with students, across a range of subject areas. The ideas have been contributed by Tom’s Twitter mates and assembled into a slideshow (courtesy of Google Docs) for ease of access.

Thanks Tom and friends – a really useful resource!