Happy Twitterversary!

At 21:20 CST today I will celebrate one year of tweeting.

When I enrolled, I could not comprehend the value of these short comments. Little did I know how twitter would become a part of my existence, complete with friends and colleagues who make me happy and sad and angry.

Until you try it, the whole concept sounds utterly ridiculous. What can you say in 140 characters, really? And how many people do you really reach?

At the time I write this, nearly 200 people follow my thoughts on twitter. If I tweet something particularly notable, my followers may retweet it, with the potential to reach thousands of tweeple in a manner of minutes. That impact is far broader and faster than an email chain.

I am now well over 2000 tweets. Some are interesting, many are drivel. But I have enjoyed them all.

Joys of Seniority

For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter (@PHLane):

1. Shame on you! You’re missing the wittiest 140 character updates available!
2. An update: due to a family medical emergency, the colleague working in my lab is not at the current meeting to present her work in about 90 minutes.

The poster arrived by FedEx this morning. I pinned it up and read it. And I’m in trouble.

See, Claudia Chaperon is interested in circadian rhythm and its potential relationship to cardiovascular and renal risk factors, especially in relationship to menopause. She was looking for a lab with the equipment she needed that could also help her learn RT-PCR techniques. I fit the bill, and i have a deepening interest in menopause from a personal standpoint.

I did suggest that she sample kidneys as well as the SCN, that teeny weeny part of the brain she samples for gene expression. And there is rhythmic gene expression with a 4 hour lag behind SCN expression. But I can’t say much more than that…

The great joy of seniority is I DON”T HAVE TO EVEN TRY. I can explain the situation and give them Claudia’s email for other “neurosciencey” questions. If I were a bit juinior, I would have spent my afternoon cramming, not enjoying a lovely day by the pool.

Now this is the real joy of tenure!

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress.

Singing like a bird in spring

Earlier this week I wrote about Twitter. I admitted that I found some interesting twists, but I couldn't figure out why so many people love it. And I mean LOVE it, if they are really tweeting at the times on their messages. Last night my loving spouse, who doesn't really understand the power of text messaging, asked me to explain the Twitter thing. I finally admitted that I was still trying to sort out what was truly useful.

One of the people I follow is blackberryman. Through his posts I came to one on the use of microblogging in education. It's sort of vague, but does give me food for thought.

I'm looking for specific examples of uses of Twitter or other microblogs in education, particular graduate or medical school teaching. Leave a comment or a link to your site. Or tweet me!