A printable 1-page Twitter guide for all skill levels
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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.
Practical Advice for Teaching with Twitter – ProfHacker
Last week I introduced a pedagogical framework for using Twitter in your teaching, organized along two axes: monologic to dialogic and passive to active. These high-falutin terms are fine for a theoretical matrix, but what about the real life implementation of Twitter in and outside of your classroom? How do you actually do it? I’m going to leave behind the pedagogy (mostly) in this post, and instead offer some practical advice for teaching with Twitter. I’ll cover six aspects of Twitter integration where it pays to plan ahead of time (i.e. sometime last week): organization, access, frequency, substance, archiving, and assessment. Organization A question I often hear from colleagues interested in using Twitter is Do I have to follow all of my students in order to teach with Twitter? Creating a list requires you to manually add each student to the list (think of it as a Twitter Roster), whereas hashtags rely upon students themselves to tag their tweets. Access Frequency Substance Archiving
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
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.
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. 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 Reflect that twitter is an incredibly positive place and everyone is full of praise. Stage 10 (the reason for this post) When seeking opinion from a range of people, ask PLN to respond.
Twitter me this…why use Twitter for school communication?
Twitter me this… Why would an administrator want to take on the headache of using social media with their parents and community? What if I asked if you, as an administrator, would like to have more communication with your parents, keep them updated and alerted to any and all important school news, while only taking up a fraction of your time? Twitter provides just such an opportunity. Our parents today are busy. How do I envision Twitter as an asset? In a world where anything can happen, and information travels SO fast, Twitter allows for timely communication. Every week a stack of reminders are sent home. Not all of our parents are on Twitter. If you don’t have a Twitter account (and don’t want one!) To get started text: “Follow @username” to 40404 and you will start receiving tweets from that user on your device. They won’t need a Twitter account or to sign up for anything. Twitter is not the silver bullet that will allow seamless communication between school and home. Tweetingly, Amber
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.
