Twitter is a free social-networking site that allows users to send very short, often inane, messages to one another about even their most mundane daily activities such as, "i'm eating lunch right now" or "I like cows". The "tweets" are updated on the users profile and then can be sent to select friends. Users can also subscribe to other users; twitter pages and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. Users update their status with a brief message of 140 characters or less.

Here is a brief explanatory video. For a more detailed demonstration of how to use twitter, please link: http://www.graspr.com/videos/Online-Social-Network-Media-TIPS-using-Twitter-1 (6 minutes 46 seconds)

Despite what may appear at first blush to be as an absolutely useless web application, even a signpost on the road to the end of civilization, Twitter can also be a useful pedagogical tool.

One example of the educational application comes from Mrs. Alessandra Melia's 10th grade Spanish class at St. Mary's Academy Bayview. Mrs. Melia set up a Twitter page for her students and requires them to submit 2 "twitters" per day in Spanish. The simple act of briefly describing ones actions in a second language is intended to bridge the gap between the relatively short amount of time that students spend in class, actively engaged in in the target language, with the rest of their experiences that presumably take place in their native language.

Twitter is also useful for the dissemination of classroom logistical information. Doug Belshaw explains on his blog

"I think Twitter could be ideal for reminding students about homework, trips and such things, especially as they can enter their mobile phone number to be alerted when one of their ‘friends’ updates their account. The advantage is that you don’t need to know the phone numbers of students to get messages onto their device: they are the ones who authorize their mobile phone from the website and they subscribe to your Twitter feed."