Twitter is a Teacher Superpower! “We all know that education budgets are getting cut more and more, and that meaningful professional development opportunities have unfortunately become a bit of an oxymoron in education. Not only can being a “connected educator” help change that, but it can also provide you with ongoing inspiration and support. I’d even go as far to argue that being connected will be the most impactful thing you can do in your career.” Elana Leoni, blogger for Edutopia. I will even go far enough to say that becoming a connected educator is a Teacher Superpower! While I can come up with pretty new and innovative ideas while planning inside my classroom, I can gain so much more from sharing my ideas, collecting ideas on Twitter (known jokingly as #ideabandits), and connecting with other educators to collaborate about even more inspiring ideas. Here is how: Get yourself logged onto Twitter and sign up for an account using your computer, iPad, or smartphone. Next step is to add an image of yourself.
12 Tips for Moderating a Chat on Twitter - Jenise Fryatt Bio So you've graduated from social media kindergarten and you're thinking of stepping up your game a little. A great way to do this is to volunteer to moderate a chat on Twitter. Benefits of chat moderation often include making new connections, more exposure in your niche, more targeted followers and becoming the regular chat moderator's FAVORITE person by giving her a break (hint, hint.) But it's so intimidating, you say. Yes, twitter chats can go very fast, involve many participants and cover lots of information. When I started I was scared to death. 1. Once you have a topic, and a date and time for your chat, start promoting up to a week in advance. 2. A Twitter client like Tweet Chat makes both participation and moderation in a chat easier. 3. Start the chat by saying something like, "Welcome to the chat everyone! This gives everyone an opportunity to network and laugh a little. 4. Have at least 4 questions ready to get people talking. 6. 7. 8. A little silence can be a good thing. 9.
Twitter for Teachers Loading... If you only have five minutes to spare, this is the one to watch. Educator Marc-André Lalande (@malalande) makes the case for Twitter in education, while keeping it light and fun. by Marc-André Lalande 5,782 views I'm a big fan of CommonCraft's paper-cut animation explainer videos, which make complex topics understandable. by leelefever 158,217 views Coming up with good and useful tweets can be intimidating for beginners. Hashtags are a critical part of utilizing Twitter well. by Alicia Discepola 401 views Let's say you're already a believer and you use Twitter with your students, but you want to explore additional tools. by EmergingEdTech 1,081 views A social studies teacher from Wisconsin describes how he has re-invigorated his passion for knowledge by using Twitter to grow his personal learning network, or PLN. by WaukeshaSchoolsWI 187 views by Chris Haskell 5,385 views Rey Junco (@reyjunco) is a professor who researches how social media use affects college students.
The Twitteraholic’s Ultimate Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter Most educators who learn to use Twitter effectively say they learn more from their personal learning network (PLN) on Twitter than they’ve achieved from any other forms of professional development or personal learning. Unfortunately educators often dismiss Twitter, or fail to see the value of Twitter, when they’re first introduced to Twitter. Our aim of this post is to provide all the information you need to learn how to use Twitter effectively as an educator. We regularly update this post with new information. Click on a link below to go to the section you want to read: About the Twitter-a-holic’s Ultimate Guide The original Twitter-a-holic’s Guide was published in July, 2010 when I’d just returned from attending a large conference overseas and realized that while a conference can make you feel really overwhelmed and alone — especially amongst the 13,000 ed tech professionals participants who attend it each year — I never felt alone. Why? Back to Top Introduction to Twitter Be patient. Handle
Utilizing Twitter Chats for Professional Development Each week, educators from around the world take part in various conversations on Twitter known as “chats.” These conversations have become an excellent way for educators to connect on relevant topics, share resources and best practices, all while challenging each other’s thinking. The premise of a Twitter chat is simple. Each lasts for 60 minutes, moderators pose questions on a predetermined topic, and participants use a consistent hashtag (#) to communicate. Questions are posed in a sequential “Q1, Q2” (Question 1, 2, etc.) format over the 60-minute time period. A variety of tools such as Tweetdeck, HootSuite, Tweetchat, etc., can be utilized to aggregate the chat into a single stream to ease the conversation process. Recently, I pulled together six educators from around the country who are leaders in this area. Blumengarten (@cybraryman1) has cataloged a list of Twitter chats, which can be foundhere. Some recommended chats include:
Some Twitter basics for teachers who are absolute beginners What a "personal learning network"(PLN) means to teachers based on a survey done by Caroline O'Bannon. A Must-Have Guide to Canadian Education #Hashtags Looking to kick-start your Twitter identity this summer? Using social media to connect with other educators can be a great way to learn new things, chat with others who are doing similar things in their classroom, and to meet new colleagues. The handy infographic below (created by MindShare Learning) highlights some of the more popular education hashtags on Twitter – that are specific to Canada! We’ve gotten a lot of requests lately from readers in Canada for information specific to them, and this infographic came across our desks just in time! Check out the plethora of useful hashtags below! A Quick Hashtag Refresher: Whether you’re a new or seasoned Twitter user, you likely come across confusing hashtags that probably look like a bunch of nonsense. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keyword or topic in a Tweet. For example, the popular #edchat hashtag is used by thousands of users every Tuesday. The Hashtag’s Early Start
The history of Twitter, 140 characters at a time Twitter is the brainchild of a programmers who worked at the podcasting company Odeo Inc. in San Francisco. The founders are Jack Dorsey (@Jack), Evan Williams (@Ev) and Biz Stone (@Biz). They were looking for a way to send text on their cellphones and a way to reinvent a dying company. On March 21, 2006, @Jack sent the first tweet: "just setting up my twttr." And thus a communications revolution was born, one renown for brevity and bad spelling. Dom Sagolla (@Dom), in tweet 38, typed these prescient words: "Oh, this is going to be addictive." The name Twitter was inspired by Flickr, a photo-sharing service. The dictionary definition of twitter is "a short burst of inconsequential information." A perfect name, said @Jack because "that's exactly what the product was." Almost 200 million users worldwide. More than 140 million tweets are sent daily. In 2008, Twitter had eight employees; today it has more than 400. At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called tweets. Why?
How To Use Twitter For Teaching And Learning Are you still unsure about taking the plunge into Twitter? Worried it’s not actually useful for learning or teaching? Think it’s still just about people talking about what they’re eating? Whether you’re a newbie wondering the above questions or a talented tweeter, there are always new and exciting ways to use Twitter. Lucky for us all, Maggie Verster (check out her edublog here ) created an epic e-torial (e-tutorial!) that walks you through the A to Z of Twitter for education. - Why should a teacher or education administrator use Twitter? - How do I set up an account? - What questions should I always ask myself when I follow someone? - How do I tweet? - How do I find good people to follow?