Who Knows Who?

Today I found a very cool little online application called tweetwheel. Just put in your twitter name and it maps the relationships of 100 people in your network. A hard to follow graphic at first glance, if you simply mouse over anyone's name, the connections light up allowing you to see who is connected to who.

What else was interesting to look through was the strong solid connections between people in my network and the points of difference. People like Dean Shareski, Sharon Peters and Darren Draper and I have many points of connection. But when I look at other parts of my network, I see that I am the only person I know following Make Magazine, Slashdot and Reuters.

This is the same type of mapping application I'd like to see available for teachers in classrooms. I'd love to be able to map the connections between kids in classrooms, to see the relationships and the developments. How many kids are working where? We are missing out on information we sorely need.

Tags: DeanShareski, Darren Draper, Sharon Peters, tweetwheel

Comments

[Diane Hammond]

Interesting! It doesn't show how deep the connections are though. For instance, when I look at my tweetwheel it shows that you and I are both connected to Dean Shareski. This is true. Yet Dean follows you but not me, so in fact there is a deeper connection between the two of you.

I'm wondering if I'm getting a little paranoid, but are you becoming concerned about how much tracking is going on in our lives?

[vejraska]

I like the idea of a student connections graphic. I have been trying to think of a good way to create some sort of database of potential collaborators who teach the same or similar age level, so when I come up with an idea, I can go to this one place, find out who may want to participate, what their tech situation is, etc. It would be kind of like how they match you up for epals or monster exchange, but we could also post and store our own collaborative project ideas there for others to use...hmmm, perhaps I feel a summer project coming on??

[Clarence Fisher]

Diane; I think this is a valuable lesson in how much we can be tracked. Would this be useful to a potential employer for them to check up on my network and see who I get my ideas from? What if I am following "questionable" people or information sources? Would this give them second thoughts about hiring me? I was talking with my principal the other day about employers setting up Facebook and MySpace accounts just to check people out. Another lesson in the fact that you should always act online in ways that would be appropriate for anyone to see.

[Diane Hammond]

Agreed Clarence and I don't think we as a profession are giving young teachers any guidance in this area. Kyle Stashuk and I were having this same conversation the other day in response to his post, The consequences of living your life online, http://stashuk.ca/2008/05/02/the-consequences-of-living-your-life-online/. We've got work to do!

[Bill Fitzgerald]

Hello, Clarence,

You could use a tool like Exhibit (part of the Simile project from MIT) to create visualizations of connections between students -- this would be very achievable if your learning environment was based in a web application like Drupal.

Cheers,

Bill