Tweet, Tweet, Tweet… Tweeting Assignments & Discussions Kara Damm, Technology Integration Specialist

What is Twitter? An online social networking service and microblogging service Enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters Messages are known as “tweets”

Why would you use this in education? Twitter may not be appropriate for every classroom Hopefully this workshop will help you determine if it will work in your class! Engage students Allow parents and community members to see what you are teaching Create a global learning network Publicize your work A top source for breaking news

Twitter – Broke Down Tweet – simply a message on Twitter – Cannot be longer than 140 characters RT or Retweet – When you read a tweet that is interesting to you, you can retweet it which passes it on to your followers. Retweeting is usually a compliment. RT indicates this is a retweet Person who is retweeting the content Original creator of the tweet. (being retweeted)

Tweets – Broke To reply to or mention another Twitter user in your Tweet… procede their username with symbol. check this out! Links – Website address are typically long. With only being able to Tweet 140 characters, you will need to shorten the website address. – Copy the web address and go to the following website tinyurl.com OR bitly.com – Paste the web address you would like to share into the tinyurl or bitly and it will make a shorter addresses – OR bitly.com/ OR bitly.com/2342 – Copy and paste the shortened URL into your Tweet

Hashtags Any word, phrase or abbreviation preceded by a # is a hashtag – #edchat #highered Hashtags are a way of letting others search for a certain subject and see the topics that are going on regarding the hashtag If you decide to use Twitter in your classroom, you will want your students to use a particular hashtag at the end of all their class-related tweets. This way when you search for the tweets, they will all appear. There is not a special set up Just create a hashtag that is not already being used Mine was #mcccompapps

Hashtags Two ways to view activity of a particular hashtag – Click on the hashtag when it appears in your stream – Click on the search box and enter the hashtag (press enter)

Best Practices for Individuals When creating your account, pick the shortest possible version of your name. – When people retweet your name it counts as part of their 140 characters Bio – Limited to 160 characters – Spend some time crafting it. It will play a large part in who will find you and if they decide to follow you Upload your picture – It helps people put a face with your name and your tweets Find people to follow – The people you follow do not have to be real life acquaintances – The quickest way to find people to follow is to type a term in the search box and see who is discussing that subject. On the left side of the screen will be “Tweets” and “People” click on People and it will list all the people who are responding to that topic.

Best Practices for Individual Be aware that you are broadcasting and anyone can your posts (unless you protect your tweets; however, that makes it difficult to build a following group) Promote your – Include your Twitter name on your signature – Include it on relevant documentation – Include it on your other social media websites Consistency – Twitter is not like Facebook – It takes a little time to get use to it – Check in often and don’t neglect your account Patience – You will not be flooded with followers immediately – Tweet high-quality information and follow others and you will gain people who follow you