Presented by Piti “Golf” Kanjanapongpaisal, Ph.D. Florida State College at Jacksonville University of South Alabama Sylvia E. Rogers University of South Alabama Whitney L. Bryan University of South Alabama 06/26/20012

My Background What’s Twitter? Using Twitter in Academic Settings – Computer-mediated Communications – Collaborative Learning – Metacognition Limitations Preliminary Study Overview

My Background Instructional Designer/Training Platform Developer at the Readiness Support Center, USACE Teaching Assistant and Instructional Designer at the USA eLearning Instructional Designer at FSCJ Masters and doctoral degree in IDD from the USA Follow

What is Twitter? Micro-blogging service What’s happening? – Compose new Tweet… 140 characters Common features – Following/Followers – Lists – Timeline – Reply/Retweet/Favorite – Interactions/Mentions – Direct Messages – Hashtags (#) – Trends – Search

Using Twitter in Academic Settings Computer-mediated communication – Go beyond sharing and updating status messages – Use as a learning tool to share information, resources, and media – Promote social interaction of instructor-learners and learners-learners Twitter Features: Mention, Direct Messages, Retweet, Reply, and Hashtags

Using Twitter in Academic Settings Collaborative Learning – Share and exchange thoughts and reflections with classmates – Developing and integrating collaborative learning activities Twitter Features: Hashtags and Lists Create a virtual chat room – Use free twitter desktop applications (Hootsuite and TweetDeck)

Hashtags for Educators # edchat – Talk to a variety of educators around the world through #edchat, Tuesdays at noon and 7 p.m. EST. #edtech – Share resources and discuss how technology can be used for education. #lrnchat – Every Thursday night from 8:30-10 p.m. EST, you can connect with other educators and discuss learning. #edbkchat – On Wednesdays at 4 p.m. EST, you can discuss educational books and topics in learning and pedagogy. #ptchat – Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST, parents and educators around the world can open the lines of communication on #ptchat. #urbaned – This Twitter chat for educators discusses topics relevant to urban education and beyond, every first and third Sunday of the month at 9 p.m. EST. #teachchat – Connect with other teachers and find out what they’re doing in their classrooms on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST. #smedu – Wednesdays at noon and 9 p.m. EST social media professionals, students, educators, and more can discuss using social media in education in this chat. #ntchat – New teachers can learn more about their profession with ideas, collaboration, and more for getting starting through #ntchat on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST. #educoach – Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST, you can find instructional coaching for improving education. #spedchat – Follow this weekly discussion on issues for students and teachers in special education Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. EST. Posted by Jeff Dunn at Edudemic.com

TweetDeck and Hootsuite TweetDeck by Twitter Hootsuite

Using Twitter in Academic Settings Metacognition – Promote reflection on the educational process through tweets – Develop a chronology of reflections and observations Twitter Features: Tweet, Retweet, Reply, Mentioning, and Search

Limitations Gap between the social use of Twitter and usage in education Merely a communication tool Irrelevant and random tweets No confirmation of receipt

Preliminary Study Investigate how twitter is being used at the University of South Alabama 425 participants – Students, faculty, administrator, and staff Questions – How many people have been using twitter? – What are the primary purposes of their twitter usage? – How often do they tweet? – What devices do they use to tweet? – Have they ever used twitter for any classes? – How did they use twitter in a class? – What other social media tools are they using? Other social medial tools

Questions? Website: golffy.com