USING MICROBLOGGING IN EDUCATION. CASE STUDY: CIRIP.RO Using microblogging in education. Case Study: Cirip.ro

Microblogging is the Web2.0 technology with the most important impact in 2008, with applications in many domains, including education. On a microblogging platform, the users can send and receive messages via the web, SMS, instant messaging clients, and by third party applications; the most known platform is Twitter. With a solid experience in using Web2.0 technologies in education, the authors are trying to provide arguments for using microblogging platforms in education, underlining the advantages, but also possible bad points. The article presents a microblogging platform specially designed for education, called Cirip.ro, which offers facilities such as live video / audio messages, multimedia objects embedding, private and public groups, feeds monitoring. Some concrete examples are presented, in which the platform is used for courses enhancement, for communities of practice, but also for delivering entire online courses. How to facilitate such projects, how to integrate other Web2.0 technologies, how to evaluate students portfolios and participation are underlined too.