"Protect My Tweets" - Useful in Courses? Examples?

"Protected" Tweets visible ONLY to people who REQUEST to follow you and get your APPROVAL.  

See below for excerpts about HOW to make your Tweets "private".

Useful to teachers, students?  In ways not more easily done via FaceBook or Google+?Examples?  e.g., anyone using "remind101" ... "what if a program could send reminders to students before their assignments are due?... allows teachers to text message or email students and parents."

Unfortunately, some "unlock" tools are available that claim to permit anyone to view any protected Tweets if it is possible to find the Twitter username for those tweets.

[Thanks to Carol Bradley for explaining this feature during one of our FridayLive! free online sessions. I didn't know about this and was skeptical. Now I'm interested. - Steve Gilbert 20110924]

"If the idea of strangers reading your Twitter updates makes you feel a little weird, try protecting your Tweets at first. You can always change your mind later.

"You can protect your Tweets in your account settings page, following these steps:

• Log in to your Twitter account
• Visit your Account Settings Page by selecting Settings from the drop-down menu on the right hand side of your screen.
• Scroll down and check the box next to Protect my Tweets
• Save your changes
• When you navigate to your home page after protecting your Tweets, you'll see a notice reminding you that your Tweets are now protected. 
• Accounts with protected Tweets can always go public by un-checking the box in account settings.

"Your Tweets will only be visible to users you've approved, meaning that other users will not be able to retweet your Tweets.
"Protected Tweets will not appear in Twitter search
"@replies you send to people who aren't following you will not be seen by those users (because you have not given them permission to see your Tweets)
"You cannot share permanent links to your Tweets with anyone other than your approved followers
"Please note: t.co links, even those shared via DM, are neither private nor public. Anyone with the link will be able to view the content.
- Above excerpts from Twitter Help Center | About Public and Protected Tweets

IMAGE

Photo of "Tweet tweet! Spotted at RSPB Old Moor."  by Steve F, geograph.org.uk, 25 January 2009

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Tweet_tweet%5E_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1134223.jpg

http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/d/dearne-oldmoor/index.asp

Permission

"This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Steve F and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license."