Why
Why would a group of professionals want to
have a conversation about its work on a social
networking site? Couldn't those conversations be
carried out through e-mail lists, phone calls, or inperson conversations? And why use Twitter as
opposed to other, more popular networks like
Facebook?
Twitter's greatest asset is that it is public—a
characteristic you may have previously seen as a
disadvantage. We know that one of the greatest
challenges we face in the field of blindness is the
lack of information the general public has about
the work that we do and about the needs of the
children and adults we serve. The public forum of
Twitter affords us the opportunity to learn from
our colleagues around the country while simultaneously raising awareness and educating the
public. Additionally, we can engage professionals
outside of our field in relevant conversations. For
example, if we are having a conversation about
blind and low-vision students who had additional
disabilities, it would be advantageous to have
special educators and related service professionals join the conversation. Through Twitter, we can
engage professionals in those fields even if we
are not personally connected to them.
Twitter is also free, searchable, accessible, archivable, quick, and hip! Anyone with an Internet
connection and an average level of technology
literacy can access Twitter. You can even access
and search for information on Twitter without creating an account! Messages sent through Twitter
are limited to one hundred and forty characters,
so they take mere seconds to compose. Plus,
our students and the young pre-service
teachers, who we are trying to convince to
pursue a career in our field, will think we are
cool when we tell them we are tweeting!
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