Twitter’s user base grew to more than 75 million subscribers in 2009, with its number of unique visitors increasing by 1,382% from 2008. Through its explosive growth and mainstream acceptance over the past two years, Twitter now offers schools and districts the opportunity to reach stakeholders via a new, preferred communications method. Adults over the age of 25 are Twitter’s fastest growing demographic group, a key audience for educational institutions serving parents, community members, and business leaders. During the recent CoSN 2010 Conference, we hosted a Birds of a Feather Roundtable session, ”All a ‘Twit About Twitter,” on using Twitter as a school and district communications tool. (CoSN is a professional organization for school district technology leaders.) A small online survey that C. Blohm & Associates conducted on Twitter use in K-12 education prior to the conference indicated that while more than half the respondents (district CTOs, CIOs, and other education leaders registered for the conference) and their school systems have a Twitter account, many struggle with how to use the communication tool effectively. During our roundtable session, educators posed questions about what to tweet, why Twitter is better for communications than other methods and for what purposes, and how to get their [...]
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