Visualize Twitter and Inspire New Users with TwitterFountain

by Jeffrey Thomas on January 22, 2011

For those of us that are Twitter veterans, it seems unthinkable that any educator would not see the value of the tremendous amount of resources found on Twitter.

Unfortunately, many people still view Twitter as a place to post what you had for lunch! Even when you try to explain Twitter to someone it usually doesn’t work. They just don’t “see” the value. In fact, just recently released Twitter stats by Pew Internet Research show that only 11% of adults have used an online service like Twitter.

Maybe a better way to convince them is visually. I posted “Display the Power of Twitter to Your Admins Visually” using a tool called TwitterMap. Unfortunately, that service has seemed to bite the dust! Another way to visualize tweets is by using TwitterFountain. I really like TwitterFountain because it is highly customizable. Take a look at my TwitterFountain creation using #edtech:

TwitterFountain

Link

TwitterFountain allows you to insert a keyword, get slideshow background images from Flickr or Picasa or insert your own and has a fullscreen mode. In addition, you have several options on how you want the tweets to appear on-screen.

TwitterFountain Settings

This tool would be great for classroom and presentation backchannel viewing. TwitterFountain also has their own blog here. In addition, take a look at the multimedia box in the upper right hand corner of this page to see a quick TwitterFountain tutorial.