Before the Fall 2009 semester began, I sent an email to all students enrolled in my courses about the required use of technology. While I received no replies about Blogger and Google Docs, there were a fair amount of student responses about Twitter, many boiling down to "Do we have to??" With this in mind, I decided to change the requirement for using Twitter, advocating only that students utilize this particular online communicative technology for the first four weeks of classes. After that, I figured there'd be some honest discussions about whether or not to continue using Twitter for course purposes. Such dialogues occurred this week; what follows focuses almost exclusively on what came out of them.Some students advocated Twitter's convenience as a communication tool, its allowance for the easy sharing of information and how its use encourages brevity, which, those same students explained, can help with writing. Such characteristics make Twitter "way better than Blackboard," one student said, who also observed that it is often quicker than email if there's a need to contact someone. According to other students, what makes Twitter better than Blackboard, too, is how it works as another way of sustaining class discussion, keeping it alive, present and continuous. A few students even admitted to their own initial, vehement resistance to using Twitter, quick to explain how and why they have since come around to seeing its potential benefits.However, other students were just as vocal in their opposition to Twitter, explaining irritation at the 140-character limit and how that alone stifles deeper discussion as well as the lack of substantial postings by others in the class. They also admitted their own apathy (or even hatred) toward Twitter, that because I instituted no hard requirement for its use, some felt uncertain about what they should post. Twitter's lack of organization bothered certain students, while some suggested that using Twitter made for more work that's often pointless and/or self-indulgent. A few argued that there are better things to use than Twitter, suggesting (to my surprise) the creation of a Facebook study group for class.In the end, both ENG 252 and ENG 298 students elected to make Twitter use optional for the rest of the semester, but with a requirement for 252 weekly reading groups to share appropriate links and preview intentions for their class facilitation. Only students in ENG 513 decided to keep Twitter as a more integral part of the course, agreeing on the requirement of five class-related updates a week.With these discussions completed and unlikely to resurface, I'm still surprised at how some students professed a hatred for Twitter. Perhaps making Twitter usage a soft requirement, merely suggesting that students try to keep an open mind in their experimental use, doomed it to an optional fate in both undergraduate courses. I didn't provide much guidance in proper Twitter usage either, expecting that simply having students immerse themselves in the technology and see how I utilized it would be enough. So, for potential Winter 2010 students, consider this a warning: We won't be experimenting with Twitter; we will be using it as an integral part of the course. 