Some great insights, comments and questions here. Thanks all for sharing those.

I believe that tweeting from conferences has only jumped the shark for the first wave of adopters. I think we’ll continue to see it evolve as the second wave of adopters start using it and as people learn how to use it more effectively during events. Like Maddie, I use it to take notes and just happen to be sharing my notes with the world. If someone sees my tweeting as noise, they’ll unfollow me. And, I’m ok with that.

I don’t think tweeting from conferences leads to fragmented learning any more than someone writing notes leads to fragmented learning. When people are engaged in hands-on interactive activities during a session, then tweeting doesn’t make sense. However, how many conferences really provide that?

John Medin’a Brain Rules has a lot to say about how something enters from short term memory to long term memory. It must be repeated, and repeated several times along with retelling of the story. When I tweet from an event, I find myself paraphrasing what the presenter said and adding links to other resources. I print my transcript later and save it as a PDF. I often find that I then am discussing my notes with others. That’s where the real learning occurs and moves from short term memory to long term memory–in that repeating aloud of what I heard and saw.

As for resources about online learning, texting, etc here are some former blog posts with links to research and links to two Brain Rules posts.
Virtual Meetings Vindicated
Since When Did Virtual Not Become A Live Experience
John Medina’s Short Term Memory: Repeat To Remember
John Medina’s Long Term Memory: Remember To Repeat

From my own experience as an avid Tweeter in Phase 3 of Jeff’s theory, I would say that I am very aware now of trying to provide content for virtual attendees, MORE THAN to connect with people in the room with me – though of course there’s still some of that banter. But I find myself more aware of not wanting to add to the noise and trying to provide more signal. Consequently, volume-wise, I think I tweet a lot less than I used to during actual sessions.

On the other hand though, if there’s a session where I am really learning a lot, I WILL use Twitter as a note-taking platform – I don’t know if that’s “fragmented learning” but it definitely works great for me, especially if I want to come back and write a longer blog post on that particular session later – and I would also say to Ellen’s questions that using Twitter definitely helps with the stickiness of great content, in my experience!

Maddie — I’m with Barbara and am curious to see what the early bird Tweeters are jumping to.

Jenise — I agree with one exception. I don’t believe people always need to meet in person or that it should be considered logical or inevitable that virtual communities have to meet FTF. (Sorry to step on toes here, but I really think that’s a meeting professional’s natural reaction and — if you’ll excuse — biased from that perspective.)

Here are two additional thoughts around Twitter and education that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:

– If we rely too heavily on the Twitter (or similar IM options), either as note-taking or sound-bite capturing tools, are we encouraging fragmented learning?

– Are we encouraging learners to abandon making connections within and around the content?

– Are we encouraging multi-tasking at the risk of losing needed practice in maintaining a focus, of delving deeply into something rather than snagging the high points and letting the rest float away somewhere?

In short, does anyone know whether those who are using Twitter are retaining more than those who don’t? I don’t have the data in front of me, but little of a 90-minute presentation ever sticks… However, if sending tweets about key points increases that “stickiness” of the content, then bring it on.

I would suggest that in the future, phase one will frequently take place before the conference. Maybe even before the conference has been conceived. The tweet, in a sense, is the seed of the conference. First there is the tweet, then a community of like-minded tweeters, then the overwhelming need for them to meet face to face spawns the conference itself – ala #eventprofs and Event Camp.

I think its important that we event professionals pay heed to this overwhelming need that a virtual community has, to meet face to face. If we can create this virtual community before the conference begins, imagine the attendance level, excitement and buzz that our events will have harnessed.

I actually think people get fatigued by the Kitchen Sink phase, tweeting every twitch in the room. But those tweets that crystallize or tweak a speaker’s point — those are really valuable. And as Jeff points out, as Twitter users mature, those become more prevalent.

It will be very interesting to see how the relationship between Twitter and F2F interaction at conferences evolves, including the relationship between speakers and audiences. Jason Falls talked at Event Camp about looking out as a speaker and just seeing the tops of people’s heads .. will we adapt to that or will that behavior change?

This post was mentioned on Twitter by kristirholmes: RT @Jeffhurt: The Big Tweet Theory: The Evolution Of A Conference Tweep #eventprofs http://ow.ly/14fj9...