Twitter 102 Jennifer Weaver, Resource Teacher Office of Innovation and Digital Safety Jessica Whorton, STAT Teacher Church Lane Elementary School

Outcome Agenda Participants will learn how to use advanced Twitter features in order to grow their professional learning network. Advanced searching Lists Tweet Activity PLN Strategies Third party tools Twitter chats Ask participants to share their goals.

Username Profile Image Reply Retweet Like Mention More: Block Copy Report Short URL Hashtag Direct Message Pre-assessment

What’s Your Twitter Username? https://padlet.com/bcpsodl/twitter102    

Advanced Searching Ask participants to think about a specific topic to research on Twitter.

Have them search for their topic and explain how search results show up as well as how to filter, save, and embed the search. Ask participants to click on Advanced Search.

Explore the options in Advanced search Explore the options in Advanced search. Especially helpful is the Places and the Dates as well as the Exact Phrase field.

Lists This section will require participants to create a list. If they don’t have a lot of followers already, they can create a list from the people in this class.

Show them how to navigate to their personal lists Show them how to navigate to their personal lists. Explain “Subscribed to” and “Member of.” Have them click on Create New list and walk them through the process. Show how to add people to a list and remove them. What lists could you create for your community?

Tweet Activity and Analytics Participants have to view one of their own tweets for this.

Explain how to access tweet activity Explain how to access tweet activity. Lead a discussion on how this information is beneficial.

Show participants how to access their profile analytics Show participants how to access their profile analytics. Lead a discussion on how this data can be helpful. How could you use this information to inform your communication plan?

Personal Learning Network P.L.N. Personal Learning Network Ask participants what a PLN is (not just what the acronym means). Then why do you need a PLN? https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/ The Personal: Having a PLN is about making connections and building personal relationships with teachers, school administrators, university professors, and experts around the world. No matter where you are in the world, there’s always someone online available to answer questions, share their expertise, and simply chat about what’s happening in their lives and classrooms. The Learning: Having a PLN is about sharing ideas and resources, collaboration, and learning. We may share our learning, ideas and expertise in different ways; using different media and tools, but the essence is the same: the PLN is simply the best professional development you will ever participate in – and it’s available 24/7. The Network: The defining feature of the PLN is that it is a global learning network, enabling people to tap into and share diverse, global perspectives on teaching strategies, educational issues, and technologies. If takes time and effort to build these connections, but it’s well worth the effort. From little things, big things grow

 Twitter is more relevant, more timely, ongoing, interactive, daily, and personal than traditional PD. Show the video to explain how Twitter functions as a PLN. Use the river analogy below to discuss the immensity of the Twitterverse. What PLN do you currently belong to? What PLNs exist in your school? What would you like to belong to? In this post, Chris Betcher describes what he got out of tweeting for just 10 minutes. Similarly, in this post Edna Sackson describes what she got out of 30 minutes on Twitter one morning. I like Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s analogy of Twitter being like a river. The river keeps flowing but sometimes you might just walk past and have a quick look, sometimes you might hang around and dip your toes in, other times you might spend hours swimming around.

Third Party Tools Once you have a PLN, how do you organize it, manage the information, remain connected?

TweetDeck IFTTT Storm it! Have participants break into groups to explore these tools then share out their analysis with the rest of the class.

What functions does it provide? How easy is it to use? Why might this be beneficial? Have participants break into groups to explore these tools then share out their analysis with the rest of the class.

Twitter Chats

#chat participate.com/chats Introduce yourself Listen in Like or Retweet Follow participants Answer the questions Avoid the obvious to move the conversation forward #chat Allow participants to explore the available Twitter chats and find one that interests them. Ask them to search for the chat hashtag.

Anatomy of a Twitter Chat Pre-determined questions (optional) Assigned hashtag Scheduled time Introductions Host posts Q1 Participants post A1 and respond Continue with 5-10 Qs every 5-10 mins Final remarks Explain the anatomy of a Twitter Chat. Tie in the third party tools for helping to manage it.

Thanks! Any questions? You can find us at @jennzer and @CLETS_STAT or email us at jweaver@bcps.org and jwhorton@bcps.org