Twitter

By Kevin Roper

Twitter is a wonderful social media tool that allows you to know what your friends are eating for brunch, what crazy road sign they just took a picture of, or what their thoughts are about the movie they just watched. This is the social media aspect of twitter, which allows you to stay up to date on the currents events of your friends, family, or favorite celebrity. While this is a great use of twitter, I believe that for educators twitter can become an amazing source for professional development and sharing educational resources. Twitter has allowed me to build my PLN or professional learning network. I went to an educational technology conference several months ago and many of the presenters encouraged the attendees to "follow" them on twitter. I began following other educators and technology leaders who share their ideas and resources. It made me want to post ideas so that I could add to the discussion. I found myself looking for great ideas that I could post on twitter. I soon became obsessed with twitter and have encouraged all of educators to join in too.

To begin you need to go to www.twitter.com and create an account. It is completely free and well worth every penny. Your username or twitter handle begins with the @ symbol, which is similar to an email address. Once you have a username name you can begin following other twitter users. You can search by name or allow the program to use your contacts or Facebook friends. When you follow someone, you will now be able to see all of the messages they post to twitter. If you have a smartphone or ipad you can download the twitter app and have access to the program everywhere you go. The other need to know aspect of twitter is the hashtag or #. This symbol is used to categorize your message which a topic such as #edtech. This allows other users to search for a particular hashtag and find your post. You can also use the hashtag feature on twitter to search for message posts on a topic you are interested in or want to see if other people are writing similar messages. This is great way to find some amazing resources and find other people to follow.

As introduce during this course, twitter is a microblog. You are only allowed 140 characters to create your entire message. You have to be very selective on the words used in your message because the most important thing is to keep it short. You can also post a picture which is known as a Twitpic. If you need to post a website address which may be very long, twitter will automatically shorten the address for you so it doesn't take up all 140 characters. I have heard many advanced twitter educators talk about the 75/25/1 rule, which means 75% of your post should be about education, 25% should be personal, and try to retweet someone at least 1 time a day. Just like a blog, the user needs to decide if they are going to use their twitter account for personal or professional messages.

Twitter has become my first resource when I am looking for a great idea. I am an obsessive updater and check twitter once an hour if I can. It has allowed me to connect with some outstanding 4th grade teachers in SC and across the country as well leaders in the field of educational technology. I have discovered websites, apps, and lesson plans on twitter that I was able to use in my classroom the next day. My school district currently has a twitter account and my elementary school will have one when school returns in August. Twitter has become an invaluable resource in my life as an educator.

Within a classroom there are a few ways that twitter could be used such as creating a class account and have one student each day post about something they learned. I have even seen this done as a class on an interactive whiteboard using the on screen keyboard. Some teachers have created accounts that are used for notifying parents of classroom events or upcoming tests. A fellow twitter follower uses it to have chats about various subjects for his high school science class with his students. He will tweet questions, and his students will post their opinions or answers for class discussions. The best part is that the discussion is happening in real time. I think there are a lot of ways this web 2.0 tool could be used to benefit students, but I love how twitter has helped me to become a more informed and connected teacher.

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