Monday, July 20, 2009

Twitter for Schools


Twitter is one of the hottest website of late, but I have yet to join it. I had been thinking what good is joining the micro-blogging site if one is not a celebrity or a fan. Now, I can think of one usage of Twitter for ordinary folks.

Malaysia, like many other countries, has been hit by Influenza A (H1N1). A number of schools have been closed down to prevent the spread of the dreaded flu. Somehow, the schools were not able to inform each and every student or his/her parents about the closure. Some students still turned up at schools, only to find out that the gates were locked.

Perhaps the schools should be on Twitter. The parents should ‘follow’ schools attended by their children. This way, announcements made by the schools can be quickly disseminated. Of course, the parents have to be more tech-savvy…

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13 comments:

  1. Grass7/20/2009 7:55 AM

    Not a bad idea. However is a sms broadcast not adequate?

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  2. Anonymous7/20/2009 8:38 AM

    I agree with your suggestion but then not many parents are tech savvy. I echo first commentor...sms not adequate?

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  3. khengsiong7/20/2009 9:45 AM

    Grass, Mei Teng
    Fro SMS, I suppose the schools need to have records of the parents' phone numbers.

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  4. xin7/20/2009 10:56 AM

    twitter is indeed a fast way to spread news and announcement, but true also, how many parents will use twitter anyway?

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  5. HappySurfer7/20/2009 10:57 AM

    Spreading info works much better via Twitter than SMS. Even if the parents are not tech-savvy, their children would be. No?

    KS, I suppose you could also communicate with your colleagues via Twitter in emergency cases or if you need to spread a word fast. That was how firemen in the US communicated fighting the bushfire the last time.

    Twitter is definitely not only for celebs though this social media is most suitable for them for marketing purposes. For 'lesser mortals' like us, it's a great tool to keep in touch and keep others informed and for those who want to drive traffic to their blog (which I've not really taken full advantage of). It's afterall a form of blogging, just micro-blogging of 140 chars or less. I'd say it sharpens one's wits to try to contain ideas within that span of chars. Challenging at times..

    Even after signing up, it takes some getting used to.

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  6. 迷迭香7/20/2009 3:09 PM

    Good idea...
    now how are u going to get this message across to the schools ? :p

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  7. khengsiong7/20/2009 3:45 PM

    xin
    Maybe Happysurfer has the answer - kids will use Twitter.

    Happysurfer
    I am good in summarizing, but poor in elaborating, haha...

    迷迭香
    Perhaps my readers can get the message across :P

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  8. [SK]7/20/2009 5:35 PM

    hmmm, but you have to make sure everyone logs in at the first moment..

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  9. khengsiong7/20/2009 9:11 PM

    SK
    Hmm... maybe you're right. But it can certainly complement other methods.

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  10. Neo7/21/2009 12:09 AM

    I haven't tried Twitter too, can't find the time to sit down and register an account. But, what advantage Twitter has if the school were to use a normal blog (compared to Twitter)? - Easier to write an update is it?

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  11. Tekkaus7/21/2009 3:48 AM

    You should try it Kheng Siong! Well...you don't have to be popular to use it. :)

    Hmm...I believe parents can use it and get the latest updates from school right on their phone. That would be great right? ;)

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  12. Shingo T7/22/2009 9:58 AM

    Not a big fan of Twitter - microblogging will allow the Internet to consume my life.

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  13. khengsiong7/22/2009 7:55 PM

    Neo
    According to its fans, Twitter is more "real-time".

    tekkaus
    Thanks. I'll consider whether to sign up.

    shingo
    You may be right. It's irritating to receive trivial update on my phone 10 times a day.

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