Present.ly Imitating Twitter

OK... if this is a bit like AA but for IT Educational Geeks then I have a confession to make! I like Facebook but I HATE Twitter. 

I don't see the point in it... 'John James is currently speaking in an Australian accent' or 'Cheryl Cole is recovering nicely from malaria'. 

I guess it's because I don't have the urge to share all of my thoughts nine million times a day... eventually surely people will be posting 'Nicky has nothing left to Twit about'.

However, taking this dislike of Twitter to one side I have been intrigued to see whether it can be used in an educational format. My main concern has been that Twitter is open to everybody out there and I couldn't see a way to protect my student's online - let's face it that has to be a priority these days. That was until I came across a website called www.present.ly.com. Now I can see the possibilities... and I can't wait to try this out with my Year 13 class when I get back to school as a homework task - there will only be four of them and that seems like a sensibly small test group... so what is it?

This is another free website that offers teachers the chance to create a safe, password protected Twitter like blog area to which students have to be invited. Once there my theory is that staff and students can set up a designated time for a short online debate for homework. An alternative idea would be to set up a class discussion in an ICT room and the teacher acts as a moderator whilst they debate a topic without speaking... this would be great for AFL, peer interaction and developing PLTS as well as encouraging shyer students to involve themselves in lessons... just thoughts and since this is a new one to me I will need to test it out when I get back to work...

A really interesting feature, and another online collaborative aspect of the blogging tool, is that students and staff can attach documents, PPTs, links to YouTube clips etc to their points of view. This enables the students to support their arguments and share thoughts and resources with each other. That is a fantastic tool in teaching and I like this aspect a lot.


If people out there have used this resource and they want to tell me about their experiences then I would love to hear about it.


Happy Blogging!