[I took permission to re-post this comment which Bonnie wrote on my facebook wall]
Bonnie Stewart:
i do this with my students – though not without pushback, since most adults in our society have already made an identity choice around Twitter based on surface cultural narratives about it, without really knowing what it is. so making Twitter accounts – which i am clear they NEVER have to use past our class – still offers up lots of meta-opportunity to teach lessons on digital identities and practices. one key part, i think, is that there isn’t a right answer for most people around pics & location & descriptions…diff sorts of personalities and goals make for very different sorts of choices. it’s important for students to know that whatever they choose, they can change, and that generally the world isn’t watching when their accounts are new (though we do talk about things NOT to tweet while also talking about the recipe for virality so they understand scale and that even i have relative privacy from the eyes of the world). what i try to do is give students a variety of people to look at, and (even more importantly) a sense of what they contribute and how, so students can learn from models. i also try to emphasize that they have some room to play – there is a lot you can share about identity that isn’t actually identifying: things like favourite songs rather than location.