10 Little-Known Twitter Tools For Connected Educators There’s an array of Twitter tools that make the rounds on the ol’ edtech circle. We chat about Hootsuite , Paper.li , and Bit.ly quite a bit. But there are a lot of little-known Twitter tools that don’t see the light of day on sites like Edudemic. So I thought this would be a good time to start fixing that. Got a tool that you think should be included in this list? Just Tweet It Just Tweet It is a user directory for Twitter organized by genre to allow for users to easily find other Twitter users to connect with. Twibs Twibs lets you find, follow and interact with businesses, apps and services on Twitter. Twittonary The Twitter Dictionary aka Twittonary provides explanations of various Twitter related words. We Follow The goal at We Follow is to simplify the way you find and learn from people online. Twitscoop An interesting idea, Twitscoop lets you monitor Twitter without having to reload the page. Friend or Follow Qwitter TwitSprout Find out which of your tweets was the most popular. Tweet Beep
Leadership Basics: What to Do When You Don't Have All the Answers Leaders are supposed to be all knowing -- at least when it comes to their own company -- aren't they? That's why the three most hated words in leadership are simply: "I don't know." After all, if the leader doesn't know, who does? Of course no one is expected to have all the answers. There are benefits to admitting you don't have the answers asked of you. But that doesn't make admitting you don't know what to do any easier. 1. 2. When you think "who," focus on three things: understanding, experience and expertise. Two cautions: First, beware of the faux expert who has lots of ideas but is short on real-world experience. 3. 4. Leading your team into the future is never risk free, but there is consolation in knowing there are some smart things you can do, even when you don't know what to do. The author is an Entrepreneur contributor. Mark Sanborn is an author, speaker and president of Sanborn & Associates Inc., a leadership development firm based in Lonetree, Colo.
22 Effective Ways To Use Twitter In The Classroom Using Twitter in the classroom is a no-brainer. It’s a powerful and free tool that already has wide adoption among educators, students, administrators, and parents. So how do you effectively use Twitter to resonate with students? Why not start by using the following methods that are organized by Bloom’s Taxonomy? The below visual showcases a variety of cases that should be of use for any teacher looking to effectively integrate Twitter into courses, lessons, projects, etc. What if you could use your favorite social network in the classroom? That’d be the cat’s pajamas. (For our many international readers not familiar with that term, it simply means ‘that’d be great.’) You can actually use Twitter with Bloom’s Taxonomy thanks to this below table built by TeachBytes .
How To Effectively Use The Top 4 Social Networks Have you ever wondered why you need to be a member of the top 4 social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the whole host of other social networking sites that your friend invite you to be a part of? Maybe you should only join Facebook. Or maybe Google+ would be the better option. Doesn’t everyone end up connected in all of the same places anyway? Well, the short version of the answer is no. Teachers – The 10 Stages of Twitter 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.
Leadership, not Process, is the Keystone of Innovation To think differently, act differently. For most, easier said than done. I’ve stressed this over and over again. And will keep on stressing it because I know we’ll never get over it. Simply put, there are those that seek new thoughts before taking action. So, everyone seeks new thoughts about innovation thinking. Again, that means not just thinking differently, but also acting differently. Last week I wrote about how there is a lot of focus on innovation methodologies, but not so much on the leadership part. This is because methodologies spread easily. Mindset precedes methodology The sad thing is that when a company is considering hiring service providers that provide innovation capability their criteria is based on specialization on a specific methodology. Wishful thinking, I know. Although I think methodologies like design thinking are great because it is about putting the customer at the center of what you do, a methodology doesn’t equal mindset. Scale leadership, not process Wait!
The dumbest generation? No, Twitter is making kids smarter Part of an occasional series about the way digital culture affects the way we think, learn and live. Sara: Haha there was a weird comercial for computers that had flying sumo wrestlers John: Hahaha saweeeeet I’m still tryin to picture how that works Sarah: Haha yeah so am I this opening ceremony is so weird John: It must be Sarah K: Now there’s little kids doing karate This is a typical teenage text exchange captured by an academic. Add five hours or so a day spent online, where the most common activity is yet more typing away on social networks. This outpouring often produces an anguished outcry, particularly in September as kids head back to school and screen time starts competing with homework: Technology, pundits warn, is zombifying our young and wrecking their ability to communicate clearly. But is this actually “the dumbest generation”? In fact, there’s powerful evidence that digital tools are helping young people write and think far better than in the past. Literate? It hadn’t.
How (And Why) To Flip Your Classroom It’s no secret that interacting with students on an individual level can drastically improve the learning process. Having the capacity to reach all of your students one-on-one is certainly ideal, but large class sizes can understandably make this challenging. Moreover, the traditional teaching method — students sitting in class, taking notes, fighting to stay awake — is not conducive to an interactive style. So, how can you use your class time more efficiently? Keep the Breakthroughs Going In order to reach the students who are used to treating class time as nap time, flip your classroom the information intake routine. See Also: The Teacher’s Guide To Flipped Classrooms Let’s flip your basic Tuesday morning math class. The conventional method of homework involves students struggling to figure it out by themselves. Teacher Benefits Not only does the flipped method make learning more accessible to students, it helps teachers do their job as well. Brought to You by Technology Now, Flip It
60 Ways To Use Twitter In The Classroom By Category Social media offers some great opportunities for learning in the classroom, bringing together the ability to collaborate, access worldwide resources, and find new and interesting ways to communicate in one easily accessible place. Teachers around the world have found innovative ways to use Twitter as a teaching tool (including TeachThought’s favorite), and we’ve shared many of these great ideas here with you. Read on, and we’ll explore 60 inspiring ways that teachers and students can put Twitter to work in the classroom. Communication Twitter makes staying in touch and sharing announcements super simple and even fun. Organization Twitter’s hashtags and other tools share a great way to organize information for your classroom. Resources Use these ideas to take advantage of the vast resources that Twitter has to offer. Writing Skills
27 Presentation Tips For Students And Teachers We all have to get up in front of a group of our peers and deliver a presentation at some point. Whether it’s a TED talk or a book report in your elementary school classroom, there’s a pressure and sense of nervousness that strikes us all. And that’s just the mere thought of giving a presentation. Personally, I like the ‘visualize’ tip as it gets you a bit looser and thinking about something other than your own presentation. Source: Mia MacMeekin
Twitter For Learning: 7 Ideas For Using Hashtags In The Classroom By Anibal Pacheco, TeachThought intern Twitter For Learning: 7 Ideas For Using Hashtags In The Classroom If you are an Educator looking to use Twitter in the classroom you might have noticed most tweets include a #Hashtag. The use of the # sign with a word attached to it makes up one. I would recommend you search hashtag directory services like tagdef.com, twubs.com and hashtags.org to see if somebody is using the one you want. When you visit one of these services you can enter a hashtag, view what it means and register yours using Twitter’s app authentication system. Here are some examples for Hashtag usage in the classroom. 1. Have your students engage in class discussion through the use of Twitter. 2. Create a topic hashtag for your class and have your students tweet answers to questions posted on the class Twitter account. 3. Have your student track the hashtag for upcoming events, assignments and announcements. 4. 5. 6. 7.
A Printable Guide To Creative Commons Something you probably see a lot of these days as you browse the internet is Creative Commons licensing. You’ll see many graphics that say something like ‘shared under a Creative Commons license’, or you’ll see a little rectangular graphic with some signs in them. Since we live in an age where most of our information comes from the internet in some way or another, its useful to know when and how it is ok to use something that you’ve found. We’ve already taken a look at some fair use guidelines (which comes along with a brief mention of Creative Commons licensing), but we thought that this handy infographic below gave a great, easy to read and understand version of the different types of CC licenses available. These licenses allow you to easily give others the opportunity to share your work.