Twitter as a Learning Tool?

I've recently started using Twitter to communicate and keep in touch with people in the world of training and it occurred to me that this simple little tool could be a great way to stimulate learning & development in the eyes of a whole new generation.

For those that don't know, Twitter is a social networking tool that allows you to keep in touch with different people as well as letting them know what you are up to at any time. The process is simple and you just have to add in a bit of text to a text box and it is posted for your 'followers' to see. It is really easy to use and if you want to place a link to a website or some other information, you simply add this into the text box.

This application could be a great way of sharing information and gathering feedback before and after training events, as well as being a way to keep in touch with those that are interested for as long as you want to keep on posting. The possibilities for learning are endless.

The reason I think this is such a useful idea is that more and more I notice that learners like to get information in short snippets, rather than spending a great amount of time researching and developing ideas. Twitter is a great way to do this. What is also good is that this tool is already being used by hundreds of thousands of people, it wouldn't be a great leap to get them to buy in to the concept of learning in this way.

So, why not consider how you might use this application for future learning and development. A few ideas are:

1) Post pre-course learning information
2) Evaluation - Check people's views before and after training events
3) Add snippets of learning information that learners can follow
4) Re-cap key points from a learning session
5) Ask for others feedback, feelings and thoughts on learning

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Have a look for yourself and see how this might work for you. You can also follow Trainer Bubble on Twitter, just look us up!