By: Maetal Rozenberg ’11 & Barri DeFrancisci ‘12 Language Learning Center April 9 th, 2010

What is Twitter? Twitter is an asynchronous social networking and blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.

Fun Facts About Twitter! Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide. Twitter is the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. Demographics: Twitter is mostly used by older adults who might not have used other social sites before. Twitter is used in campaigning, legal proceedings, education, emergencies, politics, public relations, space mission news, surveying opinions, business, fundraising, and more.

Twitter in Classrooms Around the World! The Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, used Twitter with native Chinese students as a tool to train communicative and cultural competence. Students had to post a certain number of English tweets and react to the tweets of their fellow students. Twitter was viewed as a supplement to practice language skills taught in the classroom.

Twitter in Classrooms Around the World! The University of Vienna, Austria, used Twitter as an evaluation platform for student ratings. Every student had to send a tweet after each course unit with feedback to the teacher.

Twitter in Classrooms Around the World! At the University of Texas at Dallas, Twitter has been incorporated into the classroom setting of courses with big groups of students. This approach gives more students the opportunity to express their views in class discussions. Another advantage is that the limit of characters forces students to get to the central point.

Learn the Twitter “Language”! Tweet (noun)- also known as twitter- is a message that is sent on the Twitter website. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Tweet (verb)- “to tweet” means the act of posting to Twitter. Twitterer- is a user of Twitter. Also referred to as a Tweeter. Twoosh- a full 140 character Twitter. *Check out the Twittonary (Twitter’s dictionary) for more fun vocabulary!

Components of Twitter! A User’s Home Page Displays the most recent Tweets of the people you follow

Components of Twitter! The Profile Displays the tweets of the person you are following and their replies to other tweets.

Examples of Tweeters

How to Become a Tweeter! Log on to twitter.com Click on “Sign up now” Step One: Creating an Account

How to Become a Tweeter! When you are presented with this screen, fill out the required boxes. You will need to create a Username and a Password. Once all of the boxes are completed, click on the box that says “Create my account.”

Using Twitter! Step Two: Logging On Enter your Username and Password and click “Sign in.”

Using Twitter! Step Three: Change Your Settings By clicking on the “Settings” tab, you can change your profile picture, background design, web address, language, and write a short biography about yourself. You can also change your username and password in the “Settings” tab.

Using Twitter! Step Four: Your Twitter On the home screen, you will see the question, “What’s happening?” Click inside the text box to tweet and update your friends about what is going on in your life!

Using Twitter! Your tweet will appear on your profile page.

Using Twitter! After clicking on the “Find People” tab, you will be presented with this screen. If you want to “Follow” someone who already uses Twitter, click “Find on Twitter” and type in their names. You can also click “Browse Suggestions” to look through categories of specific users. If you want to find users from a Gmail, Yahoo!, or AOL account, click on “Find Friends.” To invite someone to Twitter via e- mail, click on “Invite by ” and enter your friends’ address. Twitter will then send them an invitation to create an account. Step Five: Follow People

Using Twitter! When you have found the person you want to follow, click the “follow” button After you click on this button a green check mark should appear with the word “following” next to it

Using Twitter! Click “Reply” under the tweet that you wish to reply to. The box at the top of the screen will say Reply to (tweet) in the text box. Write your reply in the box and click “Tweet.” Your response will then appear on your profile. Step Six: Replying to Tweets

Using Twitter! Click on “Direct Messages” on the Home screen. Select the name of the person you wish to send a message to. Type your message in the text box. Click “Send.” Step Seven: Sending Direct Messages

Using Twitter! Log on to Click on “Tweet a Video” Click on “Choose Video File” to upload a video that is saved on your computer OR Click on “Record from Webcam” to record a new video You may enter a caption about the video in the text box Enter your Twitter username and password Click “Tweet Video!” Step Eight: Upload Videos

Using Twitter! Log on to Enter your Twitter username and password and click “Login” Click “Upload photo” from the top menu Click on “Choose File” to select a photo from a file on your computer Add a caption about the photo in the text box Click “upload.” Step Nine: Upload Photos

THE END Thank you for taking the time to learn all about Twitter! We wish you luck with your future tweets!