cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by topgold
Still reflecting on the Sir Ken Robinson keynote last night, one of the points that I thought was very interesting in how we sometimes hold our students back is when he said the following (paraphrased):
We oftentimes use the new technologies to do the old things. It is transformational when we use the new technology to do new things.
I couldn’t help but think of the development of Twitter as a networking tool and watching how educators have really leveraged this technology to build connections and enhance their own professional development. My best guess was that Twitter was built upon the popular “status update” idea from Facebook which was often used to share simple “life updates”.
“George is eating pizza.”
“George is having nachos for supper.”
“George feels guilty and is going for a run.”
It is when people took this technology and started using it in a different way, is when it had become transformational. The change in use of Twitter as defined by users, prompted a shift in the question “What are you doing?” to “What’s Happening?”. This change was highlighted in this old (almost two years!) Mashable article:
On the surface it’s a minor change, and yet it’s significant in reflecting the shifting focus and user behavior of the service over time. As most users know, the official question is largely ignored by those who have found myriad ways to share pretty much anything they wanted, be it information, relationships, entertainment, citizen journalism, and beyond.
The change acknowledges that Twitter has grown far beyond the more personal status updates it was originally envisioned to convey, and has morphed into a sort of always-on, source-agnostic information network that is wholly unique. Twitter says they don’t expect the change to at all influence how people actually use Twitter, but might “make it easier to explain to your dad.”
We often talk about technology and how sometimes, it defines us (see the printing press, electricity, car, planes, etc.). Often though, through our innovative ways of using new things in new ways, we define the technology.
