What is Twitter?  Twitter (twitter.com) is a cross between blogging and IM.  You make short entries — up to 140 characters in length about what you are doing right now.You have to create an account but it does not ask for much information.  Come twitter with Darlene (pctrainer) and Mike (denton_michael).

Learning 2.0 meets Web 2.0.  It has been a year since many of us completed the Web 2.0 27 Things project (my mp3 player is now my travel companion with books downloaded to make my commute better!).  I use some of the items I learned both at work and at home – such as this Blog entry.

An article was passed to me about how learning is improved using these web 2.0 tools. The article is called Minds on Fire (http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823 ).  It talks about how much free open training is available online similar to open source programs (you may have heard of one open source program – Evergreen!).  MIT has put much of their curriculum online.

The article mentions a writing class where they had the students do their writing in a blog rather than hardcopy papers they turned in.  The first entries were mediocre, however, a few weeks into the class they opened the blogs to the other students in the class to read and comment.  The entries improved considerably.  Then one of the student’s blogs was commented and linked by a prominent blogger in their field so the “real” community started reading the students’ blogs.  The quality of the entries improved again!

This point really hit home with me.  A few months ago I decided to use one of the blogger accounts I had created during 27 Things and turn it into my personal blog about crocheting and photography (http://pctrainer98.blogspot.com/ ).  Knowing that I was more than likely talking to myself, I did not add much information.  However, then I told a co-worker and a woman at my dentist’s office about it.  Both are just beginning to crochet.  I felt more inspired to add information and to make sure the information would help someone just getting started (ever the trainer!).

That blending of socializing and learning is really what Learning 2.0 is all about, breaking from the traditional method of learning where you may “know” the information well enough to regurgitate it on a test to “understanding” the information and using it.

We have moved our blog from blogspot to living right on our web page.  If you are a member of WALT and would like to contribute, email the webmaster for WALT and you can be added to the contributors list.  All of the officers of WALT are able to contribute to the blog with new entries.