Introduction to Twitter
Interested in having this shared as a presentation or workshop for your organization? This session is available as a videoconference scheduled through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration.
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform which provides a powerful way for educators to connect with and build a personal learning community. Limited to just 140 characters, tweets can include links, @replies to individual users, and also direct messages (DMs.) In this session we'll explore Twitter and how to get started using it to build a personal learning network. We'll also examine a variety of Twitter tools which can be used to Tweet on the go, manage your Twitter account, and document feedback from conference events and other activities.
Wesley Fryer on Twitter: @wfryer
Background
- What Happens in 60 Seconds on the Internet (April 2011, Gizmodo)
- Social Media Revolution 2 - Refresh (Vimeo)
- The Logged Out User: "Let's remember one of the cardinal rules of social media. Out of 100 people, 1% will create the content, 10% will curate the content, and the other 90% will simply consume it. That plays out on this blog, that plays out in Twitter, and that plays out in most of the services we are invested in."
Why Twitter? A few stories
- #comments4kids (project background)
- The Fire (an August 2011 poem by 8th grader, Alexander)
- The Power of TwitterPosted by Kathleen Morris
- Twitter list of astronauts on Flipboard
- What's going on at school in Van Meter, Iowa? #vanmeter
Definitions
- Tweet
- Twitterverse
- Twitter client
- @reply
- DM
- hashtag - Educational Chats by Cybraryman
- Twitter Meme
- Tweetup (Example: NECC 2009)
These materials by Wesley A. Fryer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Contact details for Wesley are available.
Twitter Tools
- Twitter (main website)
- Mobile Twitter
- Twitter Search
- Hootsuite
- TwitterFon (free iPhone and iPod Touch app)
- TweetDeck (free Adobe Air application)
Additional Resources
- share.playingwithmedia.com: Examples of shared student media using digital text, images, audio and video
- K-12 Online Conference (free: Nov/Dec 2011 - conference schedule, presenter Twitter IDs on each post)
- Free podcast: All a Twitter about Twitter: Micro-Blogging as a Professional Networking Tool by Beth Knittle (MASSCUE 2008)