A very interesting thing happened tonight. My 13 year old daughter was logged into a Moodle account being used by the school district. Her English class added a course to the system and the kids were introduced to the system today.

I was impressed to see the school district using a tool like Moodle to help manage courses, but was more impressed when I saw HOW they were using it, WHAT the kids were saying, and how QUICKLY it was adopted.

Since her class just started on this today, there was only item in the system: a forum discussion topic for the book Flowers for Algernon. The teacher started the discussion with “Should doctors tamper with intelligence?” While this topic only started today, and the kids were only exposed to this tool for the first time today, there are already close to 40 posts on the topic. Not only is the number impressive, but the quality of the posts is amazing. From logical analogies using cancer and smoking as instantiations, to discussing the interpretation of “tamper”, to debating if a possible patient could make a competent decision for themselves, and the social impact if doctors were able and allowed to tamper with intelligence, it was amazing to see the quality of thoughts and ideas.

I have been impressed before with how much better kids seem to collaborate on projects in the classroom than we often do in the workplace. This time I was impressed by the level and quality of independent thought being expressed. The kids also quickly adopted a new technology to them, and will learn a great deal more through this online debate and exchange of ideas.

If this small sample is any indication, we have an impressive generation learning to discuss and debate topics using online forums at an early age. I’m excited to see what this generation brings to the world.

I’ve been thinking about Twitter a lot lately, trying to better understand it and explain it to others. Very often I hear people that don’t use Twitter saying “I don’t get it.” I usually tell them it is like instant messaging, except you are IM’ing to the world and you can choose who you listen to. The next question is usually a variant of how or why do people use Twitter.

I’m starting to classify the different types of Twitter users based usage patterns.  Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• The Broadcaster: Broadcasters are typically working for an organization and using Twitter to make announcements. They rarely, if ever, make a personal comment. It’s strictly the facts, ma’am.
• The Play-by-Play Announcer: These folks tweet about what is happening around them, but like the Broadcaster, they seldom include personal comments. While the Broadcaster is talking about something in the community, the Play-by-Play Announcer talks about the things around them personally.
• The Color Commentator: Like the Play-by-Play announcer, these folks talk about what is going on around them personally, but they add their thoughts, opinions and analysis to the Tweet. You don’t just get what’s happening, you get their perspective on what’s happening.
• The Provokers: Not a negative term in this sense, these are true thought leaders in their areas. You follow them to get their insights and commentary.
• The Hawkers: They tweet out to the world all the goods they have to sell.
• The Heralds: This was the hardest group to name, and I’m not sure I’ve got the right name yet. These folks post links to other sites or interesting things they find on the web. You typically see tweets with a short headline and a link to a web site from them.
• The Diarists: With these folks, you get a first person play by play of life from their perspective. They truly are answering “What are you doing?” in their tweets.
• The Chatters: Twitter is the new email for these folks. Every gritty detail of their conversations with friends are exposed to the world. Sometimes fun to live vicariously through these folks.
• The Newbs: Every new technology has these. These folks unfortunately never get past a dozen or so tweets, mostly tweeting about things like “How does this work” and “Playing with Twitter.”

People don’t typically stay confined to one of these roles. We are all human and have the right to change! If I’m at a sporting event, I’m typically a play by play announcer, and sometimes provide color commentary. When I’m tweeting from work, I’m more color commentary and some diarist. During home time, I’m predominantly a diarist.

So, how do YOU use Twitter?