Thing+9-+Twitter+and+Twitter+Chats

= Thing 9 Twitter and Twitter Chats = 

Introduction
An underlying theme of this course is the importance of becoming a networked learner (and helping our students to do the same). A networked learner is someone who learns from connections to others. You already have a face-to-face network and probably connect online through websites, listservs, discussion groups, etc. Social media tools such as Twitter, Blogs, social networks and social bookmarking tools make it easy to expand your network (and your professional learning) both powerfully and exponentially.

 As we have all seen during recent political events and natural disasters, social media tools are helping to change the world. We need to consider how these tools should also be changing our classrooms and schools, and how they impact our students as learners and future citizens and leaders. ** We have to participate to know. **

I learn much and am grateful every day for the resources, ideas and conversations shared by the generous, thoughtful educators to whom I am connected online, particularly through my Twitter feed. I literally feel that I “stand on the shoulders of giants” who push my thinking, enlighten me and just generally make me better at what I do.

Here's a video created by Shelley Paul, another Learning 2.0 teacher, for some of her colleagues last year...

Direct Link to Video: @http://youtu.be/A2lsGZNo0rU
** What is Twitter? **

[|Twitter] is a micro-blogging service that allows you to publish short updates of up to 140 characters. You can follow other users to subscribe to their updates. All updates from users you follow appear in your own feed, so it’s easy to see them.

** Why use Twitter? ** It’s a common misconception that Twitter is all about people tweeting what they had for breakfast (or their latest date, or their sleeping habits, etc.). Although there are certainly people who only use Twitter for these things, the reality is that most users prefer to use it to ask questions, network or share relevant information and interesting links. It can be a powerful tool, both for building professional contacts and for staying up to date in your area. There are also many organizations and researchers using Twitter creatively to stay in touch with their students or contacts. You can use Twitter to tweet your work, ask questions, crowdsource data and reach new audiences, as well as to publicize events and news, get feedback and get/answer questions in the classroom. You might use Twitter for any of the following:
 * Sharing interesting context you find, through tweeting URLs (shortened with services such as tinyurl or bit.ly to leave you more characters to comment with) or through retweeting others’ tweets (marked RT to acknowledge that it’s not your original content, or MT if you change it slightly)
 * News updates from blogs, mainstream media or online publications
 * Activities in departments, classrooms, libraries, sporting events or other activities
 * Livetweeting at conferences (either participating in the conference audience ‘backchannel’ or to get a flavor of discussions and speakers to look up, and participate remotely by asking questions, if you can’t attend in person)
 * Asking questions, and answering those of others.
 * Crowdsourcing and finding research collaborators or participants
 * Finding and connecting with experts in your field


 * Twitter for Teachers **

How to Harness Twitter for an Extraordinary PLN (Personal Learning Network)
media type="custom" key="22464434" Direct link to video: []

** Some basic Twitter vocabulary ** (see the [|Twitter Glossary] for more)
 * Tweet: a single update of no more than 140 characters
 * RT: A Retweet, or a way of reposting a tweet originally posted by another user, sometime with your own text added ( [|more info on Retweets from Twitter support] )
 * @reply: a reply to another user ( [|more info on @reply from Twitter support] )
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">DM: a private message sent to another user ( [|more info on DMs from Twitter support] )
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">#: A hashtag, which provides a method of grouping tweets by adding a standard tag, e.g. #edtech, so that all tweets on a particular event or issue can be easily searched and tracked ( [|more info on hashtags from Twitter support] )

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #102894; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em;">Discovery Exercise

 * IMPORTANT NOTE: **

Your PLN should be associated with the gmail address you will be using most and is easiest to access from multiple devices. While you may be using your school emai for this class, if you would like to start building your Google+ and Twitter Profiles with a different account, feel free to do so.

If you already have a Twitter account, skip ahead to ** Exploring Further **. If not, follow these easy steps to get one set up.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">Go to [|http://twitter.com/] and use the sign up box to get started. Follow the steps to create an account (if you want more help, Twitter provides [|detailed step-by-step instructions] ). Think about your online presence when you decide on a user name, brand yourself now.
 * 2) Use your real name and fill out your profile with your location, profile pic and helpful bio- People won't follow you back if they aren't sure who you are.
 * 3) Post your first 3 tweets-**1) hello world or something similar, 2) A resource you have found helpful (with a link) 3) a shout out to our Learning20 group by using the hashtag** ** #36Learning20 **
 * 4) ** Spend 10 minutes a day on Twitter **.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Each day post at least one tweet with the hashtag **#36Learning20** and spend a few minutes reading tweets in your stream.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> Find people to follow- by the end of this course, ** you should be following at least 100 people ** . I find it easiest to look who other people are following and start picking people who seem to be a good fit for my learning needs.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #102894; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Task 1: ** Exploring further **

 * Twitter hashtags offer a great way of following conferences – either by finding out about and interacting with those at a conference with you, or by hearing details of a conference you were unable to attend. **Great news: This week** ** [|#iste2016] in Denver just ended. What a great week to look back at some of the latest and greatest EdTech happenings. **
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">Take a look and see if a conference of interest to you has/had a hashtag, and then see what sort of tweets come up under that hashtag (keep in mind that Twitter may not show results before a certain date).
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">Another way to use hashtags is to set up real time chats – for instance, the Illinois Educator Chat takes place every Monday at <span style="background-color: #f5f5f5; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;"> 9 pm CST, [|#iledchat] Chats are usually held at specific times each week or month, and you can participate by tweeting your comments or questions with the appropriate hashtag. This spring, I participated in an ILedchat from Wrigley Field! Here's a list of Education chat hashtags; they cover all sorts of topics.
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">Use lists! Twitter allows you to make lists of other Twitter users, so you can categorize people in helpful ways.
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">Set up and save searches for relevant topics, people or events in your field.
 * <span style="font-family: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">Take a look at a few Twitter clients. Tools like [|Tweetdeck] or [|Hootsuite] (or silverbird on Google Chrome) allow you to schedule tweets ahead of time and track retweets, reach and other stats

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #118288; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Task 2: Twitter Chats
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Participate in an educational Twitter chat of your choice for at least two weeks in a row. Be sure to use the search feature to follow all Tweets that are part of the chat. Learn more about Twitter chats here: [] <span style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">** ‡ HELP Guide: ** ===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Resources ===
 * ‡ HELP Page: ** Anatomy of Twitter Lingo - @ Reply, # Hashtag, Retweet, Favorite
 * ‡ HELP Video: ** How to post a Tweet (with a link and a hashtag!)
 * ‡ HELP Video: ** Intro to the Twitter Interface
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Langwitches Guide to Twitter in the K-8 Classroom
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Edudemic: Ultimate Twitter Guidebook for Teachers
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">List of Educational Twitter Chats / List of Educational Hashtags
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Powerful Learning Practice: Twitter Handbook for Teachers (PDF)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Social Media Experiment: Brain & Learning; Formative Assessment (a.k.a Twenty-Minute Twitter Experiment)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">InterestingWays to Use Twitter in the Classroom


 * Further Reading: **
 * **<span style="color: #373737; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline;">100 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom **
 * **<span style="color: #373737; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline;">Why Use Twitter in the Classroom **
 * **<span style="color: #373737; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline;">For my visual Learners: 18 YouTube Videos on Twitter in the Classroom **
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5;">Gearing Up for The Big Game <span style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5;"> (Renee Hawkins)- Here's an <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5;">archived version <span style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5;"> if that link is blocked
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5;">Tiny Bursts of Learning (Chris Betcher)

==<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> Blog == <span style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> Once you have completed Task 2 (participating in a Twitter Chat two weeks in a row),write a blog post sharing your thoughts about using Twitter for professional learning and connections. What were your feelings about a live tweet session like #iledchat or another twitter chat? Who did you follow and why? Did you pick up any followers? What have you learned? Title or tag your post ‘Thing 9′.


 * Over the 10 weeks of this course, you will be cultivating your Twitter experience. Dedicate a few minutes each day to adding followers, retweeting others, and posting at least one tweet. An easy but worthy goal may be simply to share one thing you learned on Twitter each day for a month. Twitter is definitely a tool that you get out of it what you put into it, but you can start by dipping your toes in and "lurking" on the sidelines until you feel comfortable. I'm in the "deep end" of Twitter and love it [|@mmiller112]. **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #118288; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">STRETCH TASK
<span style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Visit the website- "If this, then that"- @http://ifttt.com/. What advantages can a site like this offer to a busy professional?
 * On to Thing 10, Google+ **