Human Aggregation
It’s like something out of a sci-fi novel. Connecting to thousands of people to find the answer to an issue, to solve a problem, or communicate on a given topic. It doesn’t seem possible that every two minutes you are updated with the thoughts, ideas, and readings of others around the world.
Sure, I could have gone to Google and searched for resources on Cyberbullying and Internet safety. But why have a computer try to guess what I’m looking for when I can have the collective intelligence of over one thousand professional educators working for me.
I write:
My feed updates every two minutes and two minutes later, my human aggregator starts to answer. Answers pour in by other educators and educational technology people that know exactly what I’m looking for. Over the next hour, I receive 15 links to different websites and resources.
- No searching Google
- No trying to guess which result is going to give me what I want
- My new search engine is human, specific to my needs as an educator
- It is my one stop shop for the latest:
- Blog posts worth reading
- Technology news relevant to education
- News stories related to my interests
And the ability to ask it questions and get pertinent results in a matter of minutes
No, this isn’t some new beta web site, and in fact, many of you reading this are already a part of it I’m sure. Those of you who are not, you’re missing the greatest educational search engine and resource finder known to date.
Are you ready for it?
How do you get started?
- Go to Twitter.com and set up an account. Make sure in your bio you put something about being in education
- Once you are logged in go to www.twitter.com/jutecht and click the follow button (I will follow you back)
- Scan through the list of other educators that I follow and follow me and pick about 30 to get started.
- Go to Twhirl.org and follow the directions to download the twitter client for your make and model of computer (you will need to download Adobe Air as well…but you should do that anyway)
- Start Twhirl when you start your computer
- Give yourself at least two weeks of being an active user of twitter
Twitter is the best human aggregation system that I have come across to date. Rich in resources and the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of educators around the world makes it a must have professional development tool. By joining the collective knowledge of other educators you are not only able to tap into this amazing body of knowledge for your own learning and resources gathering, but you also become part of the aggregation system making the system as a whole that much stronger, relevant, and accurate for all.
Jeff,
I’m interested in what you have to say here about Twitter being a “human aggregator” and while I think I understand what you mean, the language stirs up images of conveyor belts and sausage makers for me. I’m definitely a newbie to the Twitter thing, but I’m not sure how comfortable I feel about being “aggregated” if in fact that is what is happening. I guess the language works for the early adopter / edtech set, but I always wonder about the need for translation. If I pitched the value of participating in “human aggregation” to faculty I work with I’d get eye-rolling and perhaps more visceral responses. I think there are huge marketing challenges in introducing these emerging technologies and practices…any thoughts on another way to talk about it?
I also think the way you suggest for folks to get involved is helpful. At the same time, I think you reap the benefit of having a huge network of 1000 people who follow you and want to respond to your updates and requests…you appear to be a bit of a maven in this regard. This network building takes a significant time investment and is not automatic.
From my perspective folks new to Twitter should be prepared to endure some high levels of fragmented conversation, mundane tweets, and pure blather for an extended period of time to begin to reap the benefits you describe…even if they do randomly select a few followers from your pool.
Jeff,
Great questions….let me see if I can put this into words.
That is exactly what is happening. When you create an account you “follow” other people. You aggregate their information, or in other words you follow what they have to say you want to know what they know, what they are talking about and when people follow you they are doing the same.
Wikipedia defines aggregator this way:
That is exactly what twitter is. It takes the thoughts of your followers (human) and put them into one nice location for you to read. So twitter is the aggregation of all those followers. Now I take that one step further and do not only read my human knowledge but use it. I ask my followers questions, respond to them, interact with them. That’s what makes Twitter different from an RSS reader. It allows you to interact with the aggregated information.
How do I explain this to teachers? To those that will listen I talk about the ability to connect to other educators. You decide if you want 100 or 10 who they are and what they do. I usually compare it to Facebook (which many educators understand) and talk about how Facebook allows you to connect to “friends” Twitter allows you to connect to educators. When you need them, when you want them.
Yes it does, but any network takes time to build and your network is only as good as the time you spend creating it. I didn’t start with 1000 people. I started with a couple and what I have found is when others reply to you on twitter their followers wonder who you are and then begin to follow you. But you have to be active in the network to grow a network.
Maybe…depends who you follow and again you need to grow your network. Follow a couple of people see who they are replying to and then follow those replies and see who and what you find. Again it takes time to grow your network. If you’re not willing to put in the time then, well, you don’t get the benefits.
Great post, Jeff! I’ve been having some TWITTER conversations over on this side of the pond lately, and its interesting how difficult it is to get some to understand it AND see the benefit. Many “understand” what it is, but just don’t see the benefit. I guess many said it about email, and some are still saying it about IM, and maybe microblogging is just another new technology that will take time for some to understand.
This is a great anecdote however and i will refer to it often I’m sure.
Cheers!
Brent
I’ve been working to use Twitter effectively for about the past month. I now follow some 95 and have about 75 followers. I jump in semi-often to answer questions.
But, Twitter doesn’t work that way for me!
I’ve asked any number of questions and gotten no answers at all. When I direct message, I sometimes get answers, but not always. Of course, when they are people I really know (f2f) I get a response.
So, does Twitter work for the masses? It sure works for the “names.” People who have more fully developed online personas than mine get good responses. I’m not sure when I’ll hit the tipping point, but what is the likelihood that most classroom teachers ever will? The kind of attention and dedication seem to me that it will be unlikely to see this become a great tool for most.
I would have a hard time selling/convincing teachers to invest their scarce time in this tool for much of a payoff. I’ll keep at it though.
So maybe one solution for new users is to set up Twitter as a complement to already existing face-to-face (or separated-by-distance) communities of practice. Pitch it as a means of just-in-time help within an existing or newly-created group. For example, I’m doing a workshop with Alabama principals in a couple of weeks. By the time we’re done, they could create their own Twitter network and start using it for quick questions about dilemmas they are facing in their buildings. Then, gradually, they can find outside folks who also are of value to follow…
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Human Aggregation /U Tech Tips/ – It’s like something out of a sci-fi novel. Connecting to thousands of … http://tinyurl.com/5egtlrQuote
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