| I first heard of Twitter a year ago and was | | | | Twitterers that are mindcasting will never share |
| baffled by its usefulness. However, the website's | | | | their meal choices or bad date experiences; |
| popularity has caused me to reexamine and | | | | instead, mindcasters share thoughtful ideas and |
| revisit the site. If you are new to the site, twitter | | | | useful resources. Anyone can tap into the |
| is a site in which users frequently broadcast brief | | | | thoughts of some of the world's most innovative |
| updates, usually of one or two sentences long. | | | | minds, which is a great resource for any |
| When I first visited twitter, I saw little value in the | | | | professional, especially educators. |
| social network, but as an educator it's my | | | | Top five mindcasts to follow for media literacy |
| responsibility to understand and utilize new media. | | | | teachers |
| Many micro-bloggers use twitter as a means of | | | | 1) Jay Rosen: "I teach journalism at NYU, write |
| broadcasting meaningless events from their life. | | | | the blog PressThink, direct NewAssignment.Net, |
| This form of status updates, popular on Facebook | | | | and try to grok new media. I don't do lifecasting |
| and MSN, are refered to as lifecasting. Ashton | | | | but mindcasting on Twitter." |
| Kutcher, a frequent and popular Twitterer, is a | | | | 2) David Parry: "I think about things, and talk |
| quitessential lifecaster. Despite logic, Ashton is on | | | | about things with students, and get paid for it. |
| his way to becoming the most popular person on | | | | (Emerging Media Prof. at UT Dallas.)" |
| twitter. He's become so popular that he has | | | | 3) Scott McLeod: "An Associate Professor and |
| recently challenged the national newsnetwork CNN | | | | Coordinator of the Educational Administration |
| to a twitter popularity contest. CNN represents | | | | program at Iowa State University and director of |
| another form of twittering known as infocasting, | | | | CASTLE." |
| where small amounts of information are posted. | | | | 4) Alec Couros: "Professor of educational |
| Despite their usefulness, infocasts can often | | | | technology & media at the Faculty of |
| become hollow or superficial. However, a valuable | | | | Education, University of Regina." |
| infocast to follow is education where useful news | | | | 5) Scott Meech: "Technology in Education isn't the |
| about education trends and developments are | | | | Future, It is the Present!" He is an expert in |
| posted. | | | | education and technology. |
| The brighter side of twitter is called mindcasting. | | | | |