How I might use microblog for my own professional development or for teaching?

 Twitter! I heard so many times about it, and wondered what exactly it is. I made my own account and followed several twitters for a few days. My first reaction? I am truly living in the technology time. Everyday seems same to me, but it does not apply to the world. It is changing every time, actually every minute or second. Many things are happening around the world and they are delivered to me like real-time. It feels like more faster than media. As a graduate school student in education field, I am wondering how I can use these microblogging in actual classroom or for my personal development. I read two articles that can give me some hint or resources.

The first one I read was: The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook For Teachers.
From this site I can get some insights I would like to apply in my future classroom.
First, I would like to use it as "Communication device" for parents and students. I can share many thoughts that can be arouse in classroom with parents. There is no necessity to have designated time or space to meet to talk about some issues, we can share our thoughts in real time, actually any time. I can let parents know what's going on in classroom. I will give assignments deadlines, information related to class, etc.
Secondly, I would like to use it for classroom activities. If we have a literature class, then I can make students share their thoughts about that book using twitter. They can know what others are getting by reading that book and can ask some questions: the meaning of certain words that used in the book, what character do they like most and why, how the story will develop, etc. If we do not decide which book we will read yet, and then we can use twitter to pick a book.
Third, I want to use twitter to expand students' cultural knowledge. Many people say you can see as much as you know. If my students can know cultural differences between countries through twitter, then they can expand their understanding about cultures. I think twitter is connecting people around the world. I really want to use this great factor. Learning a language is really related with learning a culture.

The second article that I read was: Twitter-Professors.
I want to be a life-long learner. However there are so many things that I cannot cover by myself. When I use twitter, I can get lots of resources from twitters who are professors in that area. How great it is. There is no limitation like geographic distance, time or even tuition. I can learn lots of knowledge from twitters. This is the most favorite thing to me using twitter. And I ask questions related to my teaching. If I do not know where I can get certain resources, then I can ask twitters in that area. I can know what is going on in education world in real time. Many information is shared in twitter. There exists no barrier any more regarding time, distance, culture, or race.

I know there are many ways to use twitter, and I want to use it like above mentioned ways among them. I think if I use twitter well, it can give me lots of advantages.