I was excited to receive a media invite from ASCD to be a “guest blogger” at their upcoming conference in San Antonio TX (March 6-8, 2010). To get started, I’ve posted this Twitter StreamGraphs visualization that displays a flowing graph of the words most frequently used in the latest 1000 tweets marked with the hashtag #ascd10.
Check out my other Twitter visualizer – a Wiffiti screen which gathers Tweets marked with the hashtag #ascd10. It’s a great way to read the latest comments about the conference. Check back at my blog for my ASCD posts and follow me at Twitter / edteck. And see you at #ASCD10.
Navigation tips:
Scroll to right for the latest keywords. Scroll down to see the full Tweet.
If you see a large spike in one time period that hides the detail in all the other periods, click in the area to the left of the y-axis to change the vertical scale.
Recently I posted about trying out Wiffiti in my professional development sessions. "Use Wiffiti to Engage Your Audience." Since then I've used it a few more times with great success. I thought I'd share a live Wiffiti screen with my readers. This is from my most recent training session at Pomperaug High School in Southbury CT.
Wiffiti accounts are free and it's very easy to use. I created a new Wiffti screen using the school logo and set it to gather the tag #R88. The evening before the presentation (and again that morning), I posted a Tweet asking for greetings – “Say hi to Monday's teacher workshop at Pomperaug HS. (Southbury CT) Go Panthers! Tell us where you're from & why you Tweet. Add tag #R88” As participants arrived in the workshop, they were greeted on the big screen with encouraging words from all over the world.
During breakouts I switched back to projecting the Wiffiti screen and invited workshop participant to text message into the screen. They had fun with shoutouts to their friends and comments about the workshop. Pretty impressive when you're talking about the impact of technology on teaching and learning!
Many thanks to my Twitter PLN who took the time to send us a greeting. You made this possible!
I’m always looking for ways to make my presentations more engaging and interactive. (A must if you’re advocating more student-centered instruction.) I’ve been using a TurningPoint ARS for years with great results and have tried live blogs at my larger workshops. As a convert to Twitter, I thought it was the logical next step.
I’ve experimented with Twitter visualizers on my blog- StreamGraph,TwitterCloudExplorer, and most recently, Wiffiti. When I saw how good Wiffiti looked on my blog, and I realized it would be a great way to capture the backchannel at workshops. Users can interact with Wiffiti from their mobile phones or the web. It looks great on the big screen – plus it can feed from Twitter, Flickr and text messages.
I opened a free account and gave it a trial run at my recent workshop in Moriarty-Edgewood SD, New Mexico. It was easy to create a new Wiffiti screen with custom background. (I selected a local landmark neon sign from old Rt 66 in Moriarty.) I set up the Wiffiti screen to capture Tweets tagged with my Twitter user name @edteck.
The evening before the presentation, I posted a Tweet asking for greetings – “Say good morning to my teachers’ workshop on old Rt 66 in NM. Where are you from? Why do you Twitter?” As participants arrived in the workshop, they were greeted on the big screen with encouraging words from all over the world. Pretty impressive when you’re talking about the impact of technology on teaching and learning! Special thanks to all that sent greetings – it was an powerful demonstration of the new landscape of information and a display of the power of Twitter / social media!
I shot a bit of video to give you and idea what it looked like. (Remember, the live version of this screen no longer has Tweets relevant to the workshop.)
New Wiffiti messages are instantly displayed center screen and are easily viewable from a distance. Older messages then fade back and move as an animated cloud. Updates from both mobile and web are displayed synchronously across all screens subscribing to the same tags, encouraging the creation of a wide, cross-channel audience.
Using Wiffiti in Breakout Sessions
I also created a second Wiffiti screen to use during break outs. This one was designed to capture text messages from participants. For those that did not have cells, we set up computer stations where they could make comments directly from the Wiffiti website.
Here’s some sample comments – a nice mix of thoughtful observations, fun comments and a few critiques. (Note: I kept it real and I ran my system unmoderated, but it is possible to have someone monitor comments.)
“School is where kids go to watch old people work really hard”
“My Brain Hurts!”
“Let’s get going!”
“disequilibrium, change, and freedom”
“same old stuff, different day!”
“the table in the back rocks!!”
“English teachers and librarians rule -all others drool!”
“having a blast!”
“science is over here.”
“This is a great workshop!”
“Enjoying the presentation Peter. Especially the film clips!”
“Rigor and Relevance for the English Department: Rigor: Apply knowledge and skills in complex ways to analyze and solve real problems…”
My bottom line? Wiffiti is a great way to harness back channel workshop comments. The free version works well and paid versions offer more opportunities to customize and monitor comments.
My son is on the production team at All Points West, a three-day, 60-band festival this weekend in Liberty State Park in Jersey City. APW 09 opens on Friday August 31st with Jay-Z, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Vampire Weekend as first-night headliners, continuing with Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Gogol Bordello and Neko Case on Saturday; and Coldplay, Echo and the Bunnymen and MGMT on Sunday. Complete lineup here.
I thought I'd test out Wiffiti, a visualizer that automatically integrates tag-based content feeds for photos and text (e.g. Twitter, Flickr). If it works well, I'll use it to gather and display user-generated backchannel at my next presentation!
Here's a startling example of what happens when someone gets a great idea to combine music, webcam shots, dedicated fans and some thoughtful planning / coordination. Watch carefully and enjoy!
"Crowdsourcing art. More proof that the hive can make art, when directed… This music video was shot for Sour's 'Hibi no Neiro' (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album 'Water Flavor EP'. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam." From Kevin Kelly
