GSE Launches New Twitter Feed

The Harvard Graduate School of Education will launch a Twitter feed dubbed “hgse_live” that will cover the Dalai Lama’s talk at Memorial Church this Thursday.

The GSE plans to continue using the account for other talks in the future in an attempt to share its on-the-ground perspective of events pertinent to the study of education as the events unfold.

Michael Rodman, the director of communications for the GSE, said that he was optimistic about the potential of the new feed.

“It’s a great new way to use an interactive technology to reach out to people who are interested in learning more about what we do here,” he said.

According to Rodman, graduate or post-doctoral students at the GSE will be responsible for covering events and conveying the information over the feed.

Twitter is a free service that allows users to upload snippets of text, or “tweets,” from a computer or mobile device and send them to interested parties.

Subscribers can choose to receive the updates via text message on their mobile phones or to be notified by e-mail.

The new account is GSE’s second twitter feed.

The first one—named “hgse”— launched in early February and is used to report general school news and information about upcoming events.

Subscribers occupy a broad range within the education community—from Harvard affiliates to charter schools and other universities.

According to Rodman, school administrators developed the idea for a new live-feed when GSE student Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar provided live commentary over the main feed during a panel discussion on Boston charter schools earlier this month.

The first feed will link interested followers to the live one whenever coverage of an event begins.

“We felt the need to separate the two for subscribers who didn’t want that much content,” Rodman said.

Twitter feeds are becoming more popular among educational institutions. Already Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Medical School are members of the Twitter community.

Their feeds provide a viable new avenue for the quick dissemination of information. On Thursday, “hgse_live” will further this broader initiative.

“It’s what we’re about here, making sure our work gets into the hands of people who can implement it,” said Rodman.