Why Twitter is the Ideal Platform for Engagement. Twitter for Learning: The Past, Present and Future. Twitter turned 9 on 21 March. I’ve been on Twitter since March 2008. After it appeared in No 11 position on the 1st Top 100 Tools for Learning list in 2007, I realised I’d better sign up! And during the last 7 years I’ve seen lots of changes; and of course my own view of Twitter has changed too.
In those very early days, it took me a good while to understand what value Twitter had for me, but once I “got it”, it became an exciting place to be. And since then, plenty more forward-thinking learning professionals have recognised the value of Twitter for their own professional learning – with Twitter rising to the top of the Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2008 and staying in that position for the last 6 years.
Now, of course Twitter has become mainstream, brands and celebrities have their own Twitter accounts to promote themselves, there are live chats every day on all kinds of topics – with even TV programmes holding their own live chats. “Social media is about Time and Value. 80 Twitter Tools for Almost Everything - Hongkiat. Twitter is chaos, but in the midst of this beautiful mess is a ton of data that if you can understand, you can manipulate for your own use. To do that, you need the right set of tools. The good news is, there is an abundance of tools, both free and paid, out there that can help you do things like sort your followers, tell you when it is best to tweet (for higher exposure), find out who unfollowed you and more.
Here in this post, we’ve compiled a list of 80 free Twitter tools that can help you analyze all aspects of your Twitter account, discover new users and topics, track and manage your followers and Twitter lists, find and organize group chats and schedule tweets individually or in a group. Also included are WordPress plugins, Twitter clients, as well as other tools that help you do miscellaneous things on Twitter. Discover Users, Content & Trending Topics Swayy. Buzzsumo. Twipho. Topsy. Trends 24. Sonar Solo. Trendsmap. ITrended. Storify. Nuzzel. Tag The Bird. Wefollow. Brook Daily. Hashtags, Twitter Chats and TweetDeck for Education. Twitter chats are one of the best ways for educators to connect with other educators, exchange and debate ideas, ask for help and provide assistance, find new resources and take action. The challenge is that Twitter chats can be overwhelming and confusing for educators new to Twitter because they can be fast paced.
And it can be hard to work out how to participate when you are new. So we’ve put together this guide to walk you step by step through connecting using hashtags and participating in Twitter chats. For more detailed information on getting started with Twitter refer to The Educators’ Ultimate Twitter Guide – 2014. Intro To Hashtags A hashtag is any word on twitter that starts with the “#” hash (pound) sign. Hash tags make it easier to search and follow the twitter conversations on specific topics. How it works is everyone agrees to use a standard hash tag in their tweets when they tweet about a specific topic. Here are some of the commonly used educational hashtags: 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 1. [New!] Hashtags, Twitter Chats and TweetDeck for Education - mbutts - Chilton Saint James School Mail.
Twitter Professional Development. Personal Learning Networks for Educators: 10 Tips. By Dr. Mark Wagner I often begin my workshop on personal learning networks (PLN) for educators by asking these questions: Who is in your learning network? Who do you learn from on a regular basis? Who do you turn to for your own professional development? Some educators are lucky enough to learn from their coworkers or colleagues at their site. Far too many others feel isolated in their room or office, and need to meet with counterparts from other sites in order to have a professional learning experience. I usually ask these questions at conferences, which are frequently only annual events – and rare treats for many educators. Learning to Network and Networking to Learn 1. 2. 3. 4. Networking Tools and Anecdotes The four tips above are the core activities of building a personal learning network, and they can be applied using various tools to connect with others online. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Final Thoughts 9. 10. Note: I’ve also been writing about this topic for some time. Twitter for Professional Development: Ultra Beginner Edition, Part 2. Written by Mark Brumley Beyond the Basics In the post Twitter for Professional Development: Ultra Beginner Edition, I offered a simple way to demonstrate the power of Twitter to teachers. If you are introducing Twitter to your colleagues, I highly recommend following that model. This builds awareness of the learning possibilities of social media in a non-threatening way. Sharing The next step is for teachers to share what they learn. A zillion possibilities exist to share content including a shared Google doc, Evernote notebook and, of course, the faculty room bulletin board. With newbies, I suggest using Diigo. Login to Diigo and create a new group. Social Bookmarking Now the most difficult part by far; explain social bookmarking to your teachers and have them create Diigo accounts.
Okay, that’s the hard part…now for the fun. I’m not going to lie; this is an exhausting professional development session. Teachers – The 10 Stages of Twitter | dedwards.me. Stage 1 Sign up to twitter following persuasion/pestering by colleagues. Follow Stephen Fry, a famous sportsman/popstar and a news channel. Read a few tweets, don’t understand what the fuss is about and mock anyone who uses twitter. Stage 2 Overhear colleagues chatting about twitter and a great article they found. Promise to give it a go again and follow two or three recommendations.
Find articles interesting and wonder how to get more. Stage 3 Think about posting first tweet. Stage 4 Upon realising you have no followers ask colleagues how to get them? Stage 5 Have a mini twitter conversation with colleague, even retweet a couple of statements. Stage 6 Practise a couple of tweets that include @names and hashtags. Stage 7 Retweet any link you find interesting as people might read them. Stage 8 Thank colleagues for introducing you to twitter, impressed with the knowledge you have gleaned and your growing number of followers. Stage 9 Stage 10 (the reason for this post) Like this: Like Loading... Twitter For Teachers: Erin Klein's Awesome 10-Minute Video Tells All. What should a networked educational leader tweet about?
Guide to Using Twitter in Your Teaching Practice : KQED Education | KQED Public Media for Northern CA. Are you interested in using Twitter or other social media as a teaching tool? Our culture has transformed significantly where online distribution of ideas has become commonplace. Our students’ needs have shifted and they require digital citizenship skills. We’ve seen all sorts of creative use cases, but here are the most common forms: Teachers and students use Twitter for communication and conversation so they can keep the in-class discussion going after class!
Twitter is a great way to add context to content especially when students need to study a topic and find experts in the field and ask them questions on Twitter! Below, you will find some great resources for your school community to help jump into using social media, specifically Twitter, as a learning tool. Click on a link below to access a resource: As you know, being a teacher means you’re uniquely positioned to provide valuable guidance and insight to your students around areas related to online safety and digital citizenship.
Teachers – The 10 Stages of Twitter | dedwards.me. Twitter (Microblogging) Guide to Using Twitter in Your Teaching Practice : KQED Education | KQED Public Media for Northern CA. Twitter Tutorial 2013 - Introduction and User Interface (1/4) To Tweet Or Not To Tweet. The Power of Hashtags Revealed for Teachers. Twitter Bios and What They Really Say. The Beginner's Guide to the Hashtag. If you’re a social media novice, hashtags — those short links preceded by the pound sign (#) — may seem confusing and unnecessary. But they are integral to the way we communicate online, and it’s important to know how to use them (even though some people, like Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake, are not the biggest fans).
Plus, they can be a lot of fun. On Twitter, the pound sign (or hash) turns any word or group of words that directly follow it into a searchable link. This allows you to organize content and track discussion topics based on those keywords. The hashtag’s widespread use began with Twitter but has extended to other social media platforms. With our beginner's guide, you'll be hashtagging like a pro in no time. How do you make the most of hashtags? Supported Characters Image: Flickr, Roberta Cortese Which characters can you include in a #hashtag? For starters, spaces are an absolute no-no. Numbers are supported, so tweet about #50ShadesOfGrey to your heart’s content. TrainingICTinclassroom. A Refreshingly Simple Guide To Twitter For Teachers. Teachers are on Twitter every minute of every day.
There are daily hashtag chats where educators from around the globe collaborate, share interesting tidbits, and make lifelong connections never before possible. There are people with tens of thousands of followers who are viewed as thought and opinion leaders. It’s a minute-by-minute pulse of the education world. It’s exhausting. It’s overwhelming. It’s hard to imagine where to start. That’s the idea behind this simple visual guide to Twitter for teachers who are either new to the social network or simply need a refresher about why they got started in the first place. So if you’re scared of getting started with Twitter, this is a great first visual to check out. This image is a little bit dated (uses old icons, etc.) but the usefulness remains. Source: Rossier Online. How To Manage Your PLN Using Twitter Lists. One of the greatest boosts in my teaching career has been the development of my Twitter PLN/ALN ( as per a previous post – mine isn’t just “Personal” it’s an “Active” Learning Network ).
It has been amazing for me to see who I have followed, what their interests are, and more importantly who their contacts have led me to. But even judicious building of an ALN/PLN can lead to a large, and unwieldy stream of tweets. Especially as many of those I find key to my learning often participate in their own chats. The List So – my key to maintaining my control of my learning network is the list .
If the Twitter stream is the filing cabinet of my PLN then the List is the “label” on the drawer (the person I follow is the “file”). Instead of viewing my Twitter stream as a ‘whole’ – which can be overwhelming – I tend to use the lists for the ‘hit’ that I feel that I need. Building Your Lists In an ideal world you would have created your lists categories before building your network. The Teacher's Guide To Twitter.
Twitter has proven itself to be an indispensable tool for educators around the globe. Whatever skill level you may be, Twitter is downright fun and worth your time. So here’s a useful guide that we curated from Edudemic’s archives in an effort to put something together that was a bit easier to read than random blog posts. We hope you enjoy and will be regularly adding to this guide so feel free to leave your ideas down in the comments or by, what else, tweeting us @edudemic anytime!
Our Biggest Twitter Tips For Teachers For many teachers making a foray into the edtech world, Twitter is an excellent tool for consuming and learning. Many are also harnessing Twitter as a part of their PLN (personal learning network) to connect, share, and network. Check out our biggest Twitter tips for teachers below! Create, Don’t Just Consume The best way to get the most out of Twitter is to use it.
Connect and Network Share Your Resources Keep At It Guide To Education-Oriented Twitter Hashtags Search Rule #1. How To Create A Twitter List - A Step By Step Guide! By now, you already know that Twitter is a great tool for teachers . Not only can you use it in your classroom to keep your students and their parents informed of what’s going on, you can also use it in class for projects and homework, and you can use it for your own professional development and PLN . Recently, we heard from a teacher who uses Twitter Lists to help manage her PLN and keep her sane when she’s trying to find the resources she needs.
Twitter lists are a great way to maximize what you can get out of the tool, and an easy way to help you categorize and ‘file’ the people/things/information you’re after! The author of that article offered some great advice on curating the Twitter lists, but several of you have asked how to make a Twitter list more generally, so we figured there are probably lots of people out there who have never made a Twitter list and would like to know how. Luckily, the process is very easy! Step 1: Step 2: Click on ‘Create List’. Step 3: Step 4: Save your list. CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand. 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.