Microblogging

Cartoons & logos for the old Twitter, Mastodon & the new Twitter

Representations of the old Twitter (Source: OpenClipart-Vectors, goo.gl/0KJS46, under CC0 Public Domain licence), Mastodon (Source: Rotchko, E., 2018, bit.ly/3FFpoG3, under GNU Affero General Public Licence), and the new Twitter/X (Source: SeekLogo, 2023, rb.gy/kc4tn, free download)

Microblogging is a classic web 2.0 tool which exists at the intersection of blogging, social networking and social sharing. It involves the rapid exchange of concise information, often including images, videos and/or weblinks. There have been a number of microblogging services over the years, but many have now disappeared. For a long time, global microblogging was almost entirely dominated by Twitter/X (see the cartoon image above left, and the new Twitter X icon above right) but after a change of management in 2022 many users switched to the decentralised Mastodon (see the cartoon above centre). Given the increasing lack of control over content under the new management, as well as the close association between Twitter and the Republican campaign in the 2024 US election, another exodus began in late 2024, notably to Bluesky (which had been launched in 2021). Another longstanding alternative is Plurk, while Meta’s Threads entered the field in 2023. Twitter was officially renamed X in July 2023, with an accompanying change of logo (as seen above). In China, where Twitter/X is inaccessible, there are some highly successful alternatives including Sina Weibo (微博). Because they involve quick, succinct sharing, microblogs are often accessed in an app version on mobile devices and thus may be linked to mobile learning.

Note: This paragraph will focus primarily on Twitter/X, which has traditionally been the largest global microblogging service, but the same general points and potential uses apply to alternative microblogging platforms. The remainder of the page will focus on a variety of microblogging platforms. It is free to set up an account with Twitter/X, after which you can:

- follow those whose tweets (i.e., posts) you are interested in reading, ranging from actors and singers through to politicians, scientists and authors. Once you have done so, you can see their tweets, their replies to others, and tweets they have liked, in your constantly updated newsfeed. Note that unlike on social networking services, where friending requires a mutual connection, Twitter/X permits you to follow anyone with a public account, with no obligation for that person to follow you
- search for tweets on particular topics by typing a hashtag (introduced by the symbol #) into the search box
- tweet your own comments of up to 280 characters per tweet in languages based on the Roman alphabet, potentially including photos, videos and/or weblinks. These tweets can then be viewed by others who have chosen to follow you, or who search for any hashtags you have used. Note that there was formerly a limit of 140 characters, but in late 2017 this was doubled for languages other than Chinese, Japanese and Korean (which, as character-based languages, can express far more in 140 characters than alphabet-based languages)
- retweet others’ tweets that you find interesting in order to share them with your own followers
- send private direct messages to anyone with whom you have a mutual connection (i.e., you are both following each other)

In education, microblogging platforms like Twitter/X have been used for a number of purposes (but bear in mind that, as with many social media services, microblogging platforms generally require users to be 13 years of age or older; for younger students, teachers may sometimes set up a whole-class account managed by the teacher and shown to the class from time to time):

- backchannel conversation: during presentations or seminars, audiences can use a hashtag (introduced by the symbol #) to link together their questions and comments, leading to a real-time backchannel discussion between audience members. This could also be of interest to others who are unable to attend the live event. Indeed, it is very common nowadays for conferences to set up an official conference hashtag. When an official hashtag has been set up, presenters may sometimes display a live feed of comments and questions at the front of the room, usually by using a second data projector and/or screen, and address them at appropriate intervals or at the end of the presentation. A similar backchannel approach can be used in the classroom to gather students’ questions and comments during a lesson, as an alternative to LMS or videoconferencing platform chat windows.
- polling: a microblogging platform can be effectively used as a polling service.
- building personal/professional learning networks (PLNs): by finding and following experts, colleagues and/or peers on a microblogging platform or platforms, teachers and students can keep up with the latest developments in a given field of study or research, since many people use such platforms to focus primarily on their professional interests (see for example the data visualisation of themes derived from keywords in Mark Pegrum’s Twitter/X stream in the image below; note however that Mark switched from Twitter/X to Bluesky in 2025). Microblogging platforms can thus be used to spread information virally in many professional and academic contexts (as well as entertainment, social and commercial contexts) as part of a PLN. For ideas on education- and technology-focused Twitter/X, Mastdon and Bluesky accounts to follow, see the Feeds to follow page of this website.
- quick updates: a microblogging platform provides a channel through which students, parents, guardians or carers can receive quick educational or administrative updates from teachers or institutions, and where they can pose questions or send replies.
- online communication: succinct self-expression on a microblogging platform may form part of a literacy exercise for students. Such platforms allow a number of different kinds of online interaction between students, ranging from collaborative story writing to cross-cultural pen pal partnerships as part of collaborative online international learning (COIL) or virtual exchange (VE) initiatives.
- developing information/attentional literacy skills: given recent concerns about the spread of misinformation, disinformation and ‘fake news’, as well as about attention overload, on social media services, a microblogging platform may in fact be an ideal tool through which to draw students’ attention to these issues and help them develop the necessary digital literacies to deal with them.

Visualisation of Mark Pegrum’s Twitter themes 2022 (Source: Tweet Topic Explorer, goo.gl/IrZZ6s; note that this tool no longer operates with the new Twitter/X)

A service with similarities to microblogging platforms is Scoop.it, which displays excerpts of shared materials in a magazine-like format; for an example, see the widget from Mark Pegrum’s Ubiquitous Learning Scoop.it embedded on the mobile learning page of this website.

For more guidance on how to use microblogging platforms in education, see the following:

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