Ag Communication Web Services

Can you communicate useful instructions in 140 characters or less?

That's the question Jane Hart asks in her blog post, "Instructional design in 140 characters #140id." Jane references the Twitter account @cookbook, where Maureen Evans shares recipes as tweets, as an example of 140 character instructional design, and wonders if that concept could be adapted to other knowledge domains.

I've been wondering about very short instructional design as well. Twitter recently introduced Vine, a mobile service (currently available for iPhone and iPod touch) that lets you capture and share short (limited to six seconds) looping videos. Since I first heard about Vine, I have been wondering if it is possible to create useful instructional content in a six second video.

I searched the term "learn" on the VineRoulette website. I didn't find any actual instructions, but I did find that several educators have shared Vine videos. A search for "how to vine" on Twitter yielded some better examples like, "How to jailbreak iOS 6.1 with evasi0n in 6 seconds."

Jane Hart has offered a challenge to write "a tweet that contains the instructions for doing something – either on a work-based or personal topic?" The tweets are being grouped using the hashtag #140id.

I'd like to extend that challenge. Can you communicate useful instructions in a Vine video? Give it a try, and share your video on twitter with the hashtag #vineid. (Note to Android users: Vine is working on an Android version of their app. Keep the challenge in mind and keep your eye out for Vine on Android).

- Bob Bertsch

(Photo: "6 *SECOND* ABS Program," courtesy Seamus Walsh.)