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The wonderfully fascinating world of Twitter Bots had my wheels spinning all week. For the first few days, honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what they were, exactly. I followed Professor Flores’s advice and started with the following “conversation.” (I wasn’t sure if I had to “follow” this bot first in order for “it” to reply or if it would respond to a non-follower…still not sure, I guess, since I chose to follow before I reached out for advice.)
Here’s what I got back:
Still, I wonder, how do you search for bots without using a bot??? When I searched the twitter engine it gave some pretty foggy results. …Maybe google?? I found it amusing that when you did search up a bot you had to look under the “people” tab to refine your results…
So, within minutes I was following two random bots, waiting for “something” to happen. Eventually, I got some posts on my feed that looked like this
And this….
I got tired of looking at these posts so I actually unfollowed both bots within a few days. Yep, I broke up with my first two bots…they weren’t my type.
I also explored the link suggested on last week’s announcement page to figure out what bots I might be interested in…..this was a great tool to get lowdown on a bunch of bots. Here are some selections:
This one makes me chuckle….
Interesting….only 130 followers????? Hmmmmmm
A few more…
Next, I decided to give @KairosHotbots another shot by asking the following:
This is where they led:
and….
Still not quite my speed…..
Soon, I found a bot that tweets out a new metaphor every two minutes (not 1 as the name suggests). I couldn’t believe it! My feed was full and my phone was dinging off the hook with notifications…..deleted within hours. I couldn’t understand any of it.
But, I thought this was a good concept and started thinking how all this can apply to my students. For sure a bot that delivers a grade-appropriate vocab or grammar tip of the day would be feasible and beneficial. (I’ll add that to my list of to do’s)
The closest I got was this…
Good for adults…maybe not so much for kids???
In the end, Twitter bots left me lukewarm.
The concept: intriguing.
The final products: less than enthralling.
All good food for thought, however.
If you haven’t had the chance to check out our fellow #netnarr blogger, Kevin’s post and the Twitter bot HE MADE, it’s a must-see (and follow).
A few final ponderings….
Bots: “mainly” for entertainment? Education? Inspiration? Any of these? All of these? One more than the other, overall? If so, why? I guess there are many reasons for them…some for profit, in some ways, I guess……
I’ve been inspired to do a little experimenting of my own…..I made another twitter account and intend to only follow twitter bots. Just curious to see what it would feel like to have no “human” interaction….and what it feels like to send a tweet out into the world with no followers…..
So, I again, returned to my trusty KairosHotBots and even thanked it for its help (can we make a bot that teaches manners??) I intend to follow as many bots as I humanly can…and I wonder, do all bots respond to humans? or just some? testing…testing…
Marissa said:
I have to agree with you about the bots, I think they’re an interesting concept but overall I’m less than impressed. I’ll have to blog my own adventures, but there are very few that I’ve found to be interesting. It’s a great concept but the results are fairly disappointing. I tweeted about this, but one of my favorites is KimKierkegaardashian, although “she” has been retweeting more, and tweeting less, lately. I’m not even sure if that makes “her” a bot? I’m very confused.
Anyway, I had to check out Why Can’t We Date- thanks for the recc! It made me laugh 🙂 See you on Wednesday!
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lopezla2015 said:
Haha “her” the bot. I hear ya, Marissa. I gotta figure these bots out…i think they’re more yet to discover.
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helterskelliter said:
I feel like I had a different experience with bots?? Like, I found their nonsense to be amusing and, kind of, inspiring? I feel like it encouraged me to think differently. To think outside of the normal interpretations of words and images. It was fun to revel in this stuff that was so free-associative. I could derive my own meaning from it all. Derive, like you, if I wanted to, too!
But, see, I wasn’t looking at this medium for educational value or application. Which, it seems you were–which is not a bad thing! It’s so cool that you want to incorporate this kind of stuff into your classroom. I’m sure the kids really appreciate someone who encourages more interaction with online spaces.
Though, I must admit, looking at these bots through that kind of an academic lens does leave me somewhat disillusioned. ‘Cause, I don’t see any practical value to these bots. It’s all creative enterprise, to me. Experimentation. All I can think is that it encourages creative thinking–which I find valuable but some people find a nuisance. Non-essential, even. Kind of ludicrous.
But, I’d be interested if you did find some other aspect of these bots to be educational–that you could incorporate into your classes. (That vocab idea seems promising!)
Also, keep us updated on how following only bots goes! That certainly sound fascinating!
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lopezla2015 said:
Hi! Yeah, I think I gotta check out some bots that suit my fancy a little more in order to get inspired…..was not feeling the ones i followed. Yes, I’m definitely always looking for ways to incorporate tech in thoughtful ways into my teaching. Also, my previous life in marketing keeps me searching for potential business-y angles/uses of things such as these. I’ll keep you posted about the “twitter-account bot follower” thing I’m tinkering with and what’s going on there….thanks for sharing and for all your great work in the class 🙂
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Quanesha said:
I love your blog Laura! I love your honesty, and I was laughing throughout. I don’t feel so alone now. I thought I was the only one staring at the screen like I have no idea what this means.
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elephantscarssardinas said:
I love your blog. Your an amazing writer. I did not like my first 3 bots. I didn’t unfollow yet, but I agree with you. Some bots are not worth following.
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