10 Commandments of Twitter for Academics - Do Your Job Better By Katrina Gulliver Most of my friends (the ones who are not already on Twitter) have heard my Twitter pitch, and it's true that since joining several years ago I've become quite an evangelist. Recently over dinner, a colleague told me he had never really gotten the point of Twitter, but now that he had a book to promote, he wished he had followers he could share it with. Twitter is what you make of it, and its flexibility is one of its greatest strengths. I'm going to explain why I have found it useful, professionally and personally, and lay out some guidelines for academics who don't know where to start. The first and most obvious benefit has been helping me get to know a lot of great people whom I probably wouldn't have met otherwise. Thanks to Twitter, I have been sent copies of obsure articles much faster than I would have received them from an interlibrary loan. A common error I see some academics make on Twitter is to set up an account solely to promote a new book or project. 1. 2.
12 Twitter Tools Every Educators Must Know about Social networking is a topic that I have been posting about for sometime now. I have published a set of series on this issue and will soon be adding more to it. You can check out Educational Social Networking from part one to part 4 to learn more. Twitter is one of my top social networking tool that I use for both professional development and educational purposes. 1- TweetDeck This is a great Twitter app that allows users to arrange their feeds with customizable columns, use filters, schedule tweets and stay up to date. 2- Tweet Back Up As its name suggests, this is a tool to help you back up your tweets and your followers too. 3- Splitweet This tool allows you to access multiple Twitter accounts and also be able to separate your educational and personal accounts from each other. 4- Followize This is an awesome tool that lets you instantly read all your tweets in a very user friendly interface. 5- Qwitter 6- HootSuite This is one of the most popular platforms online. 7- Twups 8- TweetGrid
A Parent's Guide to Twitter Chances are your teen has a page on Facebook, the social-networking website with a massive following among users ages 9 to 99. And, chances are, if you've heard of Facebook, you've probably also heard of Twitter, another player in the ever-expanding fray of social networking platforms, micro-blogs and the like. Perhaps you have a Twitter account. But does your child have one too? The short answer: There’s no reason to ban your child from Twitter, but it's important that both of you understand its ins and outs, its pros and cons and how to use it properly. How is Twitter Different From Facebook? Twitter is similar to Facebook in that users can broadcast their thoughts — from the most inane to the most earth shattering — for the world to see. On Twitter, users are limited to just 140 characters per post, where each post is usually referred to as a “tweet.” Still, Twitter is potentially a means through which personal information can fall into the hands of people who shouldn’t have it.
How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool Think Twitter is just a waste of time? Think again. Its organizational structure makes it an effective tool for connecting with students and others online By Alan November and Brian Mull Read more by Contributor July 13th, 2012 Learning how to filter through tweets will bring clarity and meaning to Twitter and will get you past the mosh pit of random thoughts and lackluster chitchat. (Editor’s note: This is part three in a series of articles about how to build students’ web literacy and research skills. On Feb. 10, 2011, the world was transfixed on the protests raging in Egypt. What Mubarak might not have known is that while he was trying to maintain his iron grip on power, thousands of Egyptians were tweeting about their frustration with the dictator. If you are a middle or high school social studies teacher, and you wanted to provide your students with a close-up view of the events unfolding in Egypt, you could turn to a traditional news service.
35 ways to use Twiducate for deeper learning. Reasons to be cheerful…….Twiducate! Here are 35 ways to use Twiducate to deepen learning. I have split the tips up into four sections; using the main “Post to Class” section, using the “Important Dates” section, using the “Class Bookmarks” and using the “Chat” option. I hope you find it helpful and please, feel free to comment, and it would be great if you could add some more uses! Remember when posting information to your class don’t forget to click the pin icon, this means that YOUR post will remain at the top of the Twiducate feed. 1. Post a keyword(s) for the lesson and ask you students to post their definition of the word. You can then ask students to vote on the “best” definition by clicking on the “like” icon (see more below). To deepen learning, nominate students to decide on the keyword(s). 2. Asking effective questions is the key to deep learning, Twiducate lends itself to this brilliantly. Use Twiducate to ask; 3. 4. 5. 6. Ideal for a Modern Foreign Language lesson. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Twitter Tips Every Teacher should Know about As a teacher,Twitter is one of my favourite tools . I use it on a daily basis and for a variety of educational and professional development purposes. I have been posting a lot about this social networking website here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning and have even dedicated a whole section for all the Twitter tips and tools teachers should know about. I am also planning to publish, when times permits, a comprehensive guide on the use of Twitter in education but until then, let me share with you a great guide realized by Chery Lawson. Please read and share with your colleagues Thanks to Edudemic , we can also view these tips in a slideshow
How To Build A Great Twitter Reputation And Get More Followers And Retweets If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, then this article is for you. Want more followers and retweets?New to Twitter and want to make it useful for you?Twitter isn’t working as well as you’d like it to? The three steps to a great Twitter reputation are content, style and connections. First—because this is what makes you really popular—we’ll cover making connections and building your account. Second, we’ll work on creating tweets that will give people something to retweet, and help people get to know you and want to recommend you. Your tweets are the core to your reputation. Third, we’ll work on your Twitter style. Ready? Begin by searching for people to engage with by topics that interest you. Add users that you find and are considering to Twitter lists, so you can watch how they tweet for awhile. You’ll want to follow very few key people at first, because you’ll want to have time to devote to them once you follow them. 1. 3. And don’t forget to spread out your tweets! 1. 2. 4.
Teachers Roadmap to The Use of Twitter in Education Twitter is a social network of huge importance for us in education. We have posted several articles about it here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning and there is even a separate section where you can access all the educational tools you might need to effectively leverage Twitter in your teaching and learning.
Why Twitter Is a Teacher's Best Tool - Education Teachers are increasingly bringing the real-time communication power of Twitter into the classroom to help students learn. But I've come to the conclusion that it's great for helping teachers learn as well. Twitter has simply become one of the best places for teachers to collaborate, share solutions to common classroom problems, and discuss education policy. In fact, it might just be the best forum teachers have ever had. As a classroom teacher I remember going across the hall to ask Mr. Educators can also use Twitter to keep up with education policy. Not all teachers have totally embraced Twitter. photo (cc) via Flickr user Creative Tools
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: The 17 Best Twitter Hashtags for Education (2012 ) Talking about Twitter brings to mind the power of hashtags. According to Twitter Help Center the symbol #, called hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. Below is a list of the Edublog Award finalistsfor the best Twitter hashtag for education in 2012 This is a hashtag dedicated to the use of mobile technologies in education8-# ntchat ( new Teacher chat )This chat was created to provide weekly mentoring and focus on the needs of new, new to the profession and pre-service teachers.9- # pedagoofridayThis is another great hashtag for teachers and educators. #mathchat : Mathematics#scichat : Science#engchat: English#artsed : The Arts in education#musedchat: Music#eltchat : English Language teachers#SSChat : Social Studies chat#HistoryTeacher : History#GeographyTeacher: Geography#PhysicsEd : Physics Cybraryman has also compiled a great comprehensive list of educational hashtags more than 60.
What's a Twitter Chat? A number of my blog posts are reflections of twitter chats, such as #lrnchat and #realwplearn chat. As vibrant a community these chats represent, I sometimes forget that the participants in these chats represent a very small percentage of the overall community of Learning and Development Professionals. At a recent ASTD Chapter meeting, I was reminded of this fact during a conversation I had with a group of peers. I received silence and a few puzzled looks in response. If you've ever wanted to know how a twitter chat works, or what tools you can use to participate in a Twitter Chat, then this post is geared towards you. A Twitter Chat is a group chat that takes place using the social networking service, Twitter. There are a number of ways to participate in Twitter chats, and I'll be sharing different tools later in this posting. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. IMPORTANT: you must include the chat hashtag in your comment in order to ensure other participants will be able to see your post. TweetChat
5 Tricks for Twitter Power Users If you love Twitter—and you also have a life—you probably use Buffer to schedule your tweets: To make announcements at a specific time, to send time-sensitive tweets like for limited-time offers, to communicate when your followers are most likely to notice, and to avoid membership in the tweet-a-minute club. If that’s you then you'll want to check out a few ways to make Buffer even more useful. Who better to provide tips than Leo Widrich, the co-founder of Buffer. Here are five tricks he recommends: 1. Use SocialBro. 2. “This is a great way to engage with your followers when you have only very limited time at hand," Widrich says. 3. Twitter Hashtags In The Classroom cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by danielmoyle For the last couple of years that I have been on Twitter, I have seen the value of using a hashtag to connect and share ideas between educators all around the world. This shared learning has made my Twitter stream a lot easier to filter so I can find stuff that is more applicable to some of the work I am doing. (Here is a great list of educator hashtags and an article on how to get the most out of them.) For conferences, the first thing that I do either before the conference or when I arrive in the building is look for the hashtag (hint; if you have a technology conference or say something about innovation in your title, and don’t have a hashtag for the event, there can be a disconnect). So watching what my brother does with his own courses, and how I use hashtags in my own learning, it would seem logical that we start this within our own schools to leverage some of the power of this learning.
Twitter finds a place in the classroom Twitter has place in classroom A Los Angeles teacher has found Twitter to be an important teaching tool Students can chime in with questions and answers using the Web service Twitter is integrated into 2% of college lectures, says one study Los Angeles (CNN) -- Students tap away at their cell phones, laptops and iPads during Enrique Legaspi's high-tech history lesson. In some grade schools, pulling out these devices during class would result in a one-way ticket to the principal's office. But Legaspi encourages this behavior, as long as the kids are using Twitter. A technology enthusiast, Legaspi learned how to incorporate the social network into his 8th-grade curriculum while attending the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco earlier this year. "I had an aha moment there," he said. Teachers across the country have been incorporating Twitter into classrooms for a few years, but the site's adoption by educational institutions appears to be limited. Still, Legaspi is hopeful.