Tweeting Towards Success Using Twitter in the Classroom

Video: Click here to Play What is Twitter? Twitter is a social networking site that acts as a mini-blog, where you can send out your thoughts, pictures, videos, and ideas to your followers! Some reading…. Nine reasons why you should use twitter in schools # Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom (a collaborative effort) The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook For Teachers Twitter for teachers collaborative ebook Video: Click here to Play

How Do I Use It? You have 140 characters to say what you have to say. You can follow others and they can follow you. You can connect with anyone, for any reason, at any time!

Signing Up Go to http://www.twitter.com The page looks like this You need to enter your name, Email, and password

Signing Up for Twitter Type in your: Full names (Twitter is about real people!) Username (Make it relevant) Password (choose something that you will remember) E-mail address Tick e-mail find- this way your regular e-mail friends can find you. Click on Create my account It is a good idea to always read the Terms of Service before you sign up

Registering Your Account By following people that have the same interests as you, you can create a powerful learning network on the fly.

Registering Your Account See who of your friends are already using twitter

Confirming Your Account Check your e-mail inbox for an e-mail from Twitter. Click on the confirmation link contained in the e-mail. You will now be able to receive direct messages directly to your e-mail inbox. You will still be able to use Twitter even if you have not confirmed your e-mail. Activating your e-mail will give you access to many other services on twitter

Adjusting Account Settings Make sure that you adjust your basic settings... Click on Settings  Account Your real name, username and e-mail will be filled in already Change your time zone Choose if you want others to see your location (you will then be able to locate others near you) You can choose to protect your updates, but then you also choose to close yourself to new learning mentors....

Your Profile/Bio Not updating your Profile settings is like leaving your house without putting clothes on...... Click on Settings  Profile Upload a photo of yourself You can adjust your name. Be real! Where are you based? Insert your web address or blog Say something about yourself that will give potential learning partners a sense of what you do/are interested in Make sure that your Bio is professional and take your privacy into account.

NOW YOU’RE READY TO TWEET!!!

Do’s and Don’ts of Tweeting Use good language Share good learning resources Ask questions and give answers/opinions Think before you tweet Add value to your network……… DON’T: Use ALL CAPS (it is screaming) Tweet in an “altered state” Forget to credit those tweets that you are passing on (re-tweeting- RT) Remember that your tweets are very public

Reading Tweets Tweets are in reverse chronological order, according to time, with the newest at the top. If you click on Home (top right) and Timeline, you will see all the tweets of the people you are following. If you want to reply to or retweet a tweet hover your curser over a tweet to see the Reply or Retweet options or add @theotherpersonsusername to your tweet. To read anybody’s tweets, click on their twitter name or picture eg www.twitter.com/heyjudeonline and read on the pane to the right. (or click the arrow to the right) If you want to find a specific tweet again you can mark it as a favourite, using the star (Favourite) option below the tweet.

Twitter Vocabulary Tweet: an individual post RT (Retweet): retelling someone else’s post @username: Open message to a specific person Message: Direct message to a specific person #hashtag: Use hashtags to group and track discussions (conference call, chat, group information etc.)

Benefits of Twitter in the Classroom Direct line of communication to our students (they already use it for personal use, why not make it educational?) Direct line of communication to parents and other stakeholders in the community Gets students excited about telling others what they have learned. Can be used as a reflective, assessment, and learning tool

What Do I Say? Make it relevant Make it count (you only have 140 characters) Ask questions (You can get responses from students and your network of followers) Be yourself

Twitter in the Classroom Classes: can continue class discussion after class is over Community: create a community feel through linked tweets via hashtags Instant Feedback: get responses to recent discussions/lectures, pose questions to build upon the next lesson Public Notepad: share inspirations, reading, thoughts, ideas, etc. Technology: can be accessed through desktops, laptops, iPhones/iPods, any SmartPhone or Internet-enabled device Messages: Can be used as a personal message system. You don’t have to give your phone number out to make yourself available to students and parents!

Twitter Resources TweetDeck Bit.Ly Twitter Search www.tweetdeck.com Desktop application to run and manage followers, tweets, searches, favorites, etc. Bit.Ly www.bit.ly Shorten website links into only 19 characters; leaves more characters for your tweets Twitter Search http://Search.twitter. com Shorten website links into only 19 characters; leaves more characters for your tweets

Managing a TweetChat This is a great way to host a discussion, study and review for a test, etc…Students don’t have to have a twitter account to read the feeds!!! They can respond if they have an account! Go to http://www.tweetchat.com Sign in with your twitter account Add the hashtag for your chat to the top. Start chatting away!

TwitPics Upload and share pics to your twitter followers http://twitpic.com/

TwitVid Upload and share videos to your Twitter followers! http://www.twitvid.com

More Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom Make It Happen!!

#1 Gather Data Put a shout out to your Twitter network for them to tell you (and your students) something. This could be: Location (e.g. for Geography) Temperature (e.g. for Science) An interesting historical fact Their opinion about something Anything, really! This makes learning based on up-to-date information and real people (with a real story behind it!)

#2 Create a TweetStory First...Choose your theme Genre - Fairy Tale, Sports Story, Adventure etc. Give it a standard story opener and tweet this to your network Ask network to continue the story in tweets, collaborating with the previous tweets and following them via www.twitterfall.com or a #tag  Then...students follow via twitterfall,choose the best ones and edit them into a coherent story Great for editing skills, story structure etc. Where will your network take the story? http://www.twitterfall.com

#3 Keep Parents in the Loop Set up a new Twitter account for your class - you will possibly want to 'protect' your updates. Invite parents to 'follow' you, and they can see what the class are up to from any computer (home, work, internet cafe...) at any time of the day or night. They might even tweet back now and again!

#4 TwitterPoll Great for comparing the differences in views regarding a topic of choice that relates to what’s going on in your class. http://twtpoll.com

Chemical Reactions Unit Wordle #5 Word Morph Student stuck trying to find a new or interesting word?  Is the student's writing clique or lacking descriptive language? Use  twitter to send out a word and have your network give the students synonym and other meanings.  Or have classrooms connect during writing workshops. Then have the students help each other create Wordle clouds of a word and the words that are synonyms, antonyms, and examples to foster stronger and more descriptive writing.  The Wordle clouds become help posters during writing for the rest of the year. Go to http://www.wordle.com to get started making yours! Chemical Reactions Unit Wordle

#6 Communicate with Experts

#7 Monitor Learning Progress While they work on assignments, stimulate your students to tweet and reply about: stuff they learn difficulties they face tips they want to share great resources they find In this way, Twitter replaces the traditional exit slips and other formative assessments.

#8 Scavenger Hunt Have students find websites, pictures, or other online documents that fit a certain criteria related to your subject area. For example, if you are studying China, you could have students locate a map of China before PRC was formed or a narrative account of the Tiananmen Square incident. Students then post links to Twitter, and once a resource has been posted, it can not be posted by another student/group. This could be used in conjunction with teaching research skills & information literacy and/or as a method for collecting resources. 

#9 Sharing Videos with Class You can directly share YouTube videos that are relevant to what you are teaching directly with your twitter followers. To use this meaningfully with students, you could post two or three videos related to what you are teaching, have students go home or in their spare time watch the videos and retweet them with a summary (140 characters or less) of what they learned. This works great for those gifted kids in the regular classroom. Let them have access to the computer, iPad, iPod, or their own device when they finish early and watch the videos and retweet for bonus points. You could also have them find some videos or sites to share. I am going to do this using the two iPads I have and let students manage the class twitter account @mcmsscience that I set up. (under my supervision)

Contact Me Twitter: @mcmsscience and @ellabowling Ella.bowling@mason.kyschools.us 606-782-0192 (cell) (feel free to text or call with questions!)