The Power of Twitter!

February 3, 2011 by NovaNews

It looks fairly simple: a plea by someone and then a reply by another:

Thu 03 Feb 13:53 – Help librarians. I need to put together a 50 minute session for Year 12 IB students on Internet, research and study skills. #vicpln #edtech

Thu 03 Feb 14:20 – @megsamanda Start local, go global. So school resources, area resources (public libs),globalrescs (wiki, goog, worldcat) GL! #vicpln #edtech

Thu 03 Feb 15:45 – @MentoneMif thanks for your help…anything else you would recommend? #vicpln #edtech

Thu 03 Feb 16:42 – @megsamanda Goog wonderwheel for narrowing searches? #vicpln #edtech

If you still need to be convinced about the value (read power) of Twitter, then consider what happened to me this afternoon.

I logged onto Twitter to just have a look around. I saw the reply from @MentoneMif on one of the hashtags – #vicpln – I regularly follow. Intrigued by the content of the tweet, I scrolled through my nicely organized TweetDeck lists and saw the plea for help from @megsamanda just 30 minutes earlier. Satisfied that I couldn’t add much more to the succinct reply by @MentoneMif I continued scanning through #edtech. Many tweets later I spotted the thanks from @megsamanda with the tag question of anything else recommended. Just an hour later @MentoneMif suggests wonderwheel.

This is the point at which I very unexpectedly achieve a short powerful lesson about yet another amazing ‘tool’ that is out there in cyberspace just waiting to be utilized! Wonder wheel is amazing! A fantastic tool for helping to suss out resources for research or just general learning.

I found it a little convoluted to locate though. Not sure why. These directions should help.

Go to the Google page > Enter ‘google’ into the search bar > Select ‘More search tools’ from the left menu panel > Select ‘WonderWheel’

While enjoying the wheel of wonder be sure to look at the websites listed on the right hand side. They contain much info. I ran three searches: cyclone > cyclone definition > cyclone verses hurricane

Little did these two people know that they were ‘educating’ a third along the way. Cause I enjoyed my discovery so much I of course re-tweeted @MentoneMif’s tweet adding my own take – Fabulous resource! To ensure a larger audience, I added additional hashtags:

RT @MentoneMif @megsamanda Goog wonderwheel for narrowing searches? #vicpln #edtech #elearning #edchat – Fabulous resource!

Who knows how many more people may now discover this resource. Go Twitter!!

**Thanks @MentoneMif and @megsamanda for permission to publish your tweets.

10 Responses

on February 3, 2011 at 9:09 pm | Reply mentonemif

🙂
on February 3, 2011 at 9:34 pm | Reply Malyn

Twitter is a constant stream of resource I dip in regularly. I miss a lot, for sure, but do pick up interesting ones like this. Thanks for posting and tweeting. I had no trouble locating it after visiting this page: http://www.googlewonderwheel.com/google-wonder-wheel-step-by-step
…which I googled of course.

btw, I recently posted something on Twitter as an intersection between my job as an IT integrator and participating in the Edublogs Teacher Challenge – Kickstart your blog 2011. Teacher, be a learner
cheers,
Malyn
- on February 3, 2011 at 10:08 pm | Reply novanews
  
  The link you share above is a step by step guide on how to use Wonder Wheel. Going directly to Google and locating the left side panel with ‘more search tools’ option takes you straight to Wonder Wheel. Once on the website I actually found it quite easy to use.
  
  I learned about the Edublogs Teacher Challenge just a few days ago and have just signed up. A little late, but I’m hoping to work through at least some of the activities!
on February 3, 2011 at 11:06 pm | Reply Tweets that mention Wow! The Power of Twitter! | NovaNews -- Topsy.com

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by literacyspark. Bev Novak said: An unexpected discovery today: Wow! The Power of Twitter! My latest blog post: http://bit.ly/fBq3WZ #vicpln #edtech #elearning #edchat […]
on February 3, 2011 at 11:24 pm | Reply Penny Christensen

@novanews this is *great* timing for my morning sessions on Twitter – thanks!
- on February 3, 2011 at 11:29 pm | Reply novanews
  
  I’m really glad I ‘caught’ this exchange. Apart from learning something new, it provided me with a powerful example of the value of Twitter. Great fodder for those to ‘yet to be convinced’!
on February 4, 2011 at 7:09 am | Reply Megan Iemma

Thanks Bev for your comments and the post. Twitter is indeed powerful when you rely on PD from home. I have been working from home as a consultant since 2008 (had my 1st child then). I love being able to help others within the Twittersphere and also meet up with them physically. Yes, I do ask for help from time to time, but will always jump in when I see a post that I can personally help with- no matter what the topic. It makes learning a lot more global..and helps my brand (when I am relying on word of mouth in a digital form!) Keep in touch, Megan
- on February 4, 2011 at 9:34 am | Reply novanews
  
  Thanks for your kind words Megan.
  
  Yes, I too have increasingly found Twitter to be a powerful tool for professional learning. You may be interested to read an earlier post of mine in which I focus on the whole notion of professional learning: The more you learn the more you want to learn. Very early on in my blogging life, I had already formed firmed opinions on the value of Twitter when I wrote Twittering to my heart’s content!
  
  I look forward to staying in touch!
on February 4, 2011 at 11:00 am | Reply Wonder Wheel, It’s a Wonder! | Inquiry Live in the Classroom

[…] was reading a blog post about Wonder Wheel this morning (really it was about the power of Twitter-see below.) (Snow day […]
on March 4, 2011 at 1:59 pm | Reply YALitChat on tweet.com « BevsBookBlog

[…] Although I’ve written about the the wonders of Twitter in my other blog – NovaNews: The Power of Twitter! and Twittering to my heart’s content! – I just happened upon a new discovery […]