I didn’t go to the Plymouth e-Learning Conference (PELC10) this year. As I only found out about PELC earlier this year, Twitter was a great way for me to get a feel for the conference without being there in the flesh. This provided a great way of getting a flavour of what was going on, who was there and the issues that were discussed around the various presentations.
Twitter was used extensively by many of the delegates via the #pelc10 hashtag and the conversation that ensued added a further dimension to the conference for those only able to participate in silico. All in all I was most impressed by the organisation of the conference and the topics covered. The microblogging back channel certainly extended the impact of this event.
For me this was further evidence of the power of Twitter; an excellent means of social networking and participating albeit remotely in conferences and other events.
Who says that Twitter is dead?
I tried this academic year to persuade my year one students to engage with Twitter. It wasn’t terribly successful, and many of them said they preferred Facebook. That said; maybe next year I’ll think more carefully about what we ask students do with Twitter; or perhaps Friendfeed. The web 2.0 /science nexus has a power for good that needs to be further explored.