Teach Students To Use Social Media (The Right Way) And The Possibilities Are Endless : NPR Ed. CJ Marple wanted to teach his young students how quickly information can spread on the Internet. So earlier this year, the third-grade science teacher wrote up a tweet with the help of his students, asking for other users to retweet the message, or even reply to the message with their location.
The Kansas teacher says he expected 1,000 or so retweets, but within days the tweet went viral and gained more than 227,000 retweets and 75,000 replies from users all over the world. His students, who are probably a little too young for their own social media accounts, learned a lot that week about the power of social media. If used right, Marple says, "The possibilities are endless.
" Teachers have taken to creating Twitter accounts for their classrooms, which they use to post assignments and as a forum for students to tweet questions or thoughts on a specific lesson. The New York City Department of Education is one example. The Tech Edvocate’s List of 20 Must-Follow K-12 Edtech Twitter Feeds - The Tech Edvocate. Top 10 Twitter Accounts to Follow for Education Technology.
Mock Twitter Chat with Your Students - Teacher Tech. I love Twitter chats. They are exactly one hourAllow for everyone’s voice to be heardIt is okay to have a side conversation about one part of the topic to go deeper while the rest of the conversation continuesGuaranteed to get through 5-10 questions in an hourProvides individual attention to many participantsFaster feedback If you want to see a list of actual educator Twitter chats check out: educhatcalendar.com Students Chat The problem with the Twitter chats is that it’s not really feasible to do them with students.
DiscussionTab Since we all know that the answer is always a spreadsheet I have a Google Sheets template that helps you to have a discussion with your students. Alicekeeler.com/discussiontab Hear From Everyone I encourage that when having a discussion with students you always start it digitally. Create a List of Questions When I moderate a Twitter discussion I pre-plan the list of questions in advance.
Note that Add-on scripts will not run on a tablet. DiscussionTab Menu. The Edvocate’s List of 20 Must-Follow K-12 Teacher Twitter Feeds. So you have a Twitter account. Now what? | Cult of Pedagogy. An Introduction to Twitter Education Chats. Teachers must be models of lifelong learning, but besides occasionally reading books and blogs, attending conferences, and collaborating with a handful of colleagues at school, how can we extend both the reach and frequency of our interactions with our fellow educators?
Twitter education chats (edchats) are the answer for an increasing number of teachers and administrators, who eagerly participate in these online sessions because doing so meets their professional growth needs as well as their desire to contribute to the education conversation. Building a strong and satisfying personal learning network (PLN) through edchats gives you your own professional support system and a reliable resource for the cutting edge in education—all in real time. Once you become part of this global community of educators, you’ll find a sense of professional camaraderie that will help you through the tough times.
Finding the Edchats to Grow your PLN Lurking, Learning, and Leading. An Introduction to Twitter Education Chats. How school districts are leveraging Twitter to become rock stars. When a student tweets at their school’s Twitter handle, chances are they don’t expect a response–it’s like tweeting at Starbucks, or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency—you feel like you’re talking to an entity that’s far too busy and important to ever respond to you. That’s why students in Georgia’s Cherokee County School District were so surprised when they tweeted their district, begging for a snow day—and their district tweeted right back. Not only did the district respond, but the responses were sassy and high-spirited. When one student asked why the district was ruining her life, the district responded, “I have the club for you: drama. It’s so you.” In a climate where Twitter is the center of so many tempestuous news stories, thanks to our Twitter-happy president, schools should be turning to the social media giant more than ever to share news, gather feedback, benefit from other educators’ expertise, react instantly to breaking news—and sometimes just lighten the mood.
The Edvocate’s List of 20 Must-Follow K-12 Teacher Twitter Feeds – The Edvocate. 8 things Twitter savvy educators do to improve learning. When it comes to useful PD, more educators are turning to Twitter to grow learning networks in 140 characters These days, it’s hard to meet an educator who hasn’t heard of Twitter. But how many use it? While some might question if the social media platform can help with professional development (PD), there are others who know just how much potential rests in 140 characters. The universally-recognizable blue bird can do a lot to expand educators’ personal and/or professional learning networks (PLNs), as it turns out. During an ISTE 2016 session, three Twitter experts offered guidance to those seeking to expand their Twitter horizons. Twitter chats–when users show up at a common time and use a specific hashtag to have a conversation and respond to questions issued by a chat moderator–can introduce educators to peers, role models, those who challenge their opinions, and can prompt new and exciting views of what education means today.
Next page: Don’t be afraid to lurk. 8 Tips for Creating More Effective Tweets (from Twitter) Over the last 12 months, Twitter has been working hard to explain how brands and individuals can make better use of the platform, working to simplify a network that many find challenging, particularly when starting out. Along this theme, earlier this week, Twitter released an eight step guide on how to compose more effective tweets. And even if you’re an experienced Twitter user, the advice is helpful, particularly given it’s backed by Twitter’s own data and research. 1. “Keep it Simple” Various studies and research reports have noted this before, and Twitter’s own data shows the same – shorter tweets generate more engagement. A previous study on tweet engagement by Track Social Twitter’s data actually suggests that even shorter tweets than this generate the most engagement.
According to Twitter: “Concise Tweet copy helps the main message cut through. While Twitter, by nature, necessitates concise messaging, the data shows that punchy, quickly consumed messaging is the most resonant. 2. 3. Twittervention. Hands down one of the best things I do for myself as an educator is use Twitter. I follow innovative educators who SHARE what they do and are willing to help. I do not use Twitter like Facebook and I do not follow people who do. I frequently talk to teachers who are having a hard time getting into Twitter. Twitter is definitely a slow burn. It takes a little time to get use to how Twitter works and to get followers to interact with.
I have several blog posts on Twitter (listed below) that you may find helpful. In response to the requests for twitter help (I call it a Twittervention), I am going to try to text twitter tips and reminders to help teachers get into Twitter. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015. Tech It Up Tuesday: 26 Effective Ways to Use Twitter in Education. Welcome to the last edition of Tech It Up Tuesday for the 2015-16 school year! Today’s final tech-isode features a very useful infographic highlighting 26 ways educators can incorporate Twitter into their craft.
So, if you haven’t adopted this social media platform as one of your go-to places for professional development and/or sharing pertinent info with coworkers, students and parents, no worries! There’s no time like summer vacation to add a new set of skills to your tech-box! Despite the 140 character minimum, tweets—articles, thoughts, opinions, inspiration, quotes, images and more—allow like-minded individuals to connect, collaborate, discuss, exchange and even debate all sorts of ideas with virtual colleagues.
Whether it’s best practices, instructional strategies, the latest and greatest tech tools or an innovative project, invaluable information is just a hashtag away! Click here for a larger version of this infographic. 5 Ideas for using Twitter for PD in your School District. Tech Tip: How to use Twitter lists. Tech Tip: How to use Twitter lists So you’ve worked hard to build up your Twitter profile, follow the right people, and stay connected. But now you have a Twitter feed that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and a little confused.
What’s the solution? Twitter Lists, my friends! Think of a Twitter List as a file folder for the individuals and companies you follow on Twitter. Once you determine a list topic, you can add certain handles to the list and view just that activity. You can build lists based on content area, grade level or instructional strategy, to name a few. Here's how to set it up: From your profile, click on "Lists. " What happens when middle schoolers take to Twitter? They become learners. Fully 92 percent of American teenagers go online daily. More than half of them do so several times a day and a quarter are online “almost constantly.” I’m a mother of two teenagers who fall into that latter category. And as a parent and a teacher educator, I work on ways in which we might capitalize on teens’ social nature and fondness for technology to promote something positive.
A question I wrestle with is: can social media help students learn? Over the past decade, my colleagues and I at the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education have worked with hundreds of middle school teachers to integrate technology with meaningful learning. Learning through Twitter Most research on the use of Twitter for learning has been conducted with undergraduate and graduate students. So, recently, one of our partner teachers explored the potential of social media to promote learning. Next, students got down to some real work. How Twitter helped students Finally, Twitter served as an assessment tool. Twitter Considering 10,000-Character Limit for Tweets - Recode. #SchoolsReImagined Hope for students and teachers. At the Ohio Reformatory. #ButlerCountyESC.
#SchoolsReimagined#ButlerCountyESC Shawshank. Why Teachers Participate in Twitter Chats (and What's Coming Next) Teachers who want to expand their knowledge, share instructional resources, and interact with others who have complementary professional interests are discovering that class is always in session thanks to the hundreds of regularly scheduled Twitter chats that happen each week. Collaborative conversations between like-minded educators from different schools - that previously and serendipitously only took place at conferences and on other irregular occasions - are now accessible to any teacher from any geography at any given time.
Since 2009, hundreds of thousands of teachers have participated in Twitter chats to varying degrees. When you consider the volume of this unprecedented and cumulative knowledge sharing among professionals, who are trained to instruct and enlighten, it’s not hyperbole to say that the impact Twitter and other social platforms are having on education is revolutionary.
How Twitter chats work today Taking the conversation beyond Twitter. Twitter Noob: Some Tips to Get Into Twitter - Teacher Tech. This morning at #coffeeEDU in Melbourne Australia we were chatting about how to get into using Twitter. A couple of teachers said they have a Twitter account but do not check it very often. I have a Remind group I created for teachers in the United States to send out a text every day with Twitter tips and a reminder to use Twitter. Twitter is hands down the best thing I do for myself as an educator; I get so many new ideas and support from teachers. Here are a few things we brainstormed at the #coffeeEDU this morning 1. Put in your Google calendar to remind you to check Twitter. 2. I received some advice one time “you do not catch up on Twitter.” 3. I leave Twitter open all day. 4. If you like a tweet, retweet it. 5. Check out bit.ly/educhatcalendar to see what educator Twitter chats are happening. 6.
I do not use Twitter like Facebook and I do not follow people who do. Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016. Twitter Adds Message Button So You’ll Send More DMs. Reply. Retweet. Like. And now Send. Twitter is adding a new button to the bottom of each tweet so that it’s simpler to send that tweet to another user within a private message. The new icon, a small envelope right next to the heart-shaped Like button, automatically attaches the tweet to a private message which you can then address to another user. This is a relatively small update. But the fact that Twitter is putting a new button onto each tweet is a pretty good indication of how important direct messaging is to the company.
But Twitter DMs are increasing in popularity — Twitter claims that 60 percent more messages were sent in 2015 than 2014. It should also make it easier for users to send tweets to brands or retailers, a customer service use case Twitter is starting to build features for. The new icon should appear for users on Tuesday as part of a free app update for both iOS and Android. Twittertastic Teacher's Guide. The Complete Guide To Twitter Hashtags For Education. What is a hashtag? A word or phrase preceded by a “#.” How do hashtags work? Twitter can be a busy place with lots of tweets–and thus lots of “noise.”
A #hashtag is a way to aggregate tweets that are appended with a hashtag. Picture it like a magnet that attracts all messages categorized by that topical word or phrase. See also 50 Of The Best Education Accounts On Twitter Who can use hashtags? Anyone. What else do I need to know? Don’t hashtag spam–if your tweet doesn’t add to that hashtag’s topic, discussion, or user base, don’t add the hashtag.Use more than one hashtag if it applies to more than one topic, but choose wisely. Meeting Times Many of the hashtags have “meeting times” where educators agree to “meet and tweet”–that is, send out messages on a topic at a certain time on a certain day.
If you do participate at the agreed upon time, you’ll see the tweets stream in live and participate in said conversation (via twitter) in what is nearly real-time. Popular Hashtags Trends General Literacy. How to Build a Twitter Following — and Why You Should. Corey Robin, in his recent thought-provoking article, "How Intellectuals Create a Public," argues that "the public intellectual is not simply interested in a wide audience of readers, in shopping her ideas on the op-ed page to sell more books. " Instead, "she sees her writing as a transformative mode of action, a thought-deed in the world. " Robin is probably right about that. I don’t claim to be a public intellectual. I am, however, an academic interested in attracting a wider audience of readers, and perhaps even selling more books. That’s because I believe I have things to say that are worth saying, I’d like to communicate with people both in and out of academe, and I have no moral objection to being paid for my time and effort.
If you share those same goals, then you need to be using social media, particularly Twitter, probably more than you are now. First, I am not a social-media expert. Have something to say. That means you also need a blog, assuming you don’t already have one. How Twitter Saved Me. Twitter’s Most Popular Emoji and More 10th Anniversary Stats.