Ed/Tech must-reads

Hip new threads

A bit of a Threads theme this week - if you’re a sceptic, I understand but bear with me, I’ll be short. As for how this sits with Ed/Tech, it’s all about technosocial connections with other educators and joining that big community of practice in the cloud.

With Twitter’s sad journey to Bruegelian hellscape continuing apace and Bluesky invitations still a rare commodity, I was there last Thursday as Mark Zuckerberg swung open the doors to Instagram’s micro-blogging spin-off Threads. Some have compared it to the heady early days of Twitter, though I suspect that Jack Dorsey wouldn’t have dreamt of picking up 100m users within five days. It was a chaotic start, with a default setting to see every new user’s first post rendering the timeline unappealing and a very barebones interface offering a minimal experience. (Though, understandable given the rush to join). (Yes, I'm also aware that Mastodon exists, it’s fine, if a little clunky and sometimes preachy).

The Good: There is a lightness and a positivity there so far, bringing into sharp relief just how toxic Twitter has become. (Like Homer Simpson with the week-old hoagy, I still can’t quit though). The stripped back functionality and lessons from other platforms seems to be fostering a desire to do things differently. Posts are 500 characters and can contain 10 images. It’s also going to connect to the Fediverse too.

The Bad: No alt-text on images, no DMs, no hash-tags, no ability to see a feed just of the people that you follow. Some of this functionality is no doubt coming. I did find that rapidly following some people that I knew, and then their followers, and the followers of my followers gave me enough of a relevant feed to stick around.

The Ugly: Anything you say, or do, or think will be used to make Mark Zuckerberg another billion dollars or train AI bots or whatever. I don’t think anyone reasonably has any illusions about our role in the Meta foodchain. You need an Instagram account to set up Threads and it is mobile app only. (So far). Probably partially for ease of data hoovering and partially for tech stack reasons. You need to delete your Insta if you want to delete Threads, so set up a burner.

All in all, the vibe there is refreshingly light, I’ve connected with people from this space and it will probably stick around. I am @gamerlearner over there too. Say hi. Or don’t, that’s the beauty of social media.

Academics seeking academics for threading from Michael Allen

As one might expect, people are in the forming phase, and this post offers a decent starter thread for people to offer a basic bio to make nerdy friends.

Meta’s Threads is surging, but mass migration from Twitter is likely to remain an uphill battle from The Conversation

Casey Feisler (Uni Colorado) will always get my attention for a social media story and I like her historical overview here on what happens when a new socmed platform has dropped, how people deal with change and what drives the decision to move.

Will you be try Threads?

If would you like to find some new people to connect with, feel free to leave your username here. (For any platform, I guess). I am gamerlearner