Twitter in Education
The first question some of you might be asking is “What is Twitter ?”. Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time. Sometime known as micro blogging users are limited to short text only posts known as ‘tweets’. Like any new technology it takes a little bit of learning and getting used to. There are users who tweet nearly every task they do in the day from making breakfast to going to bed yet there are others two post one or two tweets per day highlighting relevant content they have found on the internet.
If you are still unsure what Twitter and Tweeting is all about then watch this short video by CommonCraft who have produced “Twitter in Plain English”.
Twitter for Teachers E-Book
In terms of education there is already a mass of material out there to support the use of twitter in education. Joel Heffner has produced a short E-Book (PDF) entitled “Twitter for Teachers” The presentation covers Twitter Basics, how to exchange ideas, provide updates, review, and generally get the best out of Twitter.
Teachers 4 Twitter Wiki
There is a also a brilliant resource for teachers in the form of the “Teachers4Twitter” Wiki. The Wiki is categorised in to the main subject areas under which is a list of a list of relevant teachers who have (willingly) added their twitter usernames as suggested people to ‘follow’.
Twitt Groups : Teachers
There is a dedicated Twitt Group for Teachers. It is a list of literally 100s of teachers who have added themselves to the public group. The group lists the Twitter username as well as the teacher’s website or blog. Join the group here.
Getting Started
Using Twitter really could not be easier. Head over to www.twitter.com and register for an account. If you are looking for someone to follow to get yourself started then visit www.twitter.com/digmo and follow us, and then check out the people we follow. You will soon find a group of relevant teachers for your subject area and be collaborating on resources and web finds in no time.
Once you are up and running you might also want to move away from the standard web interface for Twitter and opt for a stand alone application. Our favourites :
Desktop
Twirl
TweetDeck
Twitterific (Paid App).
iPhone
Twitterific
TwitterFon
Full List is a available here.
I am no Twitter expert so if you anything else to add this article please add a comment (below) better still list your @Twitter Username.
2 Comments
Great video. I haven’t ventured as far as signing up to Twitter but it is great to read some of the twitter profiles and things posted. It is definitely on my to-do list for 2009 and will certainly join the teachers group.
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Some of my students follow me on Twitter, and of course, I follow them. It’s interesting to see what they post (and when), especially coming up to assignment time. I often wonder what my students are up to when they leave my class; how do they learn, what topics are they having difficulty with, what can I do better etc., Twitter is the first tool that has started to give me these insights.
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