At JHSS this year we have begun a commitment to adult learning among teaching and support staff. Following a session on the influence of technology on how our students learn led by George Couros, our staff asked to get hands on! We have five sessions today on iPads, the Hub, building websites, BYOD, and twitter. Twitter is my workshop, and while I’m still a relative neophyte at twitter, that’s one point of digital learning. You just have to have enough to begin to teach someone else, and they will be able to then run their own learning in the direction that suits their needs.
This post will contain the outline of todays session, the activities, and resources for further learning. Thanks in particular to Michelle Hall for the document (since modified) that will get us started, and to Dean Shareski for the video that ends the post. Lets begin!
Session Outline
- Twitter basics in the Learning Commons
- Need: Laptops, Projector, Camera, Connectors
- Basics vocabulary
- Make profile and photo
- Simple, a touch of personality
- Essential Skills
- Your timeline
- Following
- Tweeting
- RT, favorite, etc
- Etiquette
- Spam scams and hacks
- Blocking
- Networking
- Conversations – reply, mention, DM, retweets
- Developing Professionally
- Hashtags, lists, favourites, discover, shortlinks, “who to follow”
THE BASICS
TWITTER VOCABULARY
▪ Tweet: A 140-character message.
▪ Retweet (RT): Re-sharing or giving credit to someone else’s tweet.
▪ Feed: The stream of tweets you see on your homepage. It’s comprised of updates from users you follow.
▪ Handle: Your username.
▪ Mention (@): A way to reference another user by his username in a tweet (e.g. @sam_joe or @mollyb or @jhssreads).
Users are notified when @mentioned. It’s a way to conduct discussions with other users in a public realm. You also know when you are mentioned.
▪ Direct Message (DM): A private, 140-character message between two people. You may only DM a user who follows you.
* Find the DM under the little screw or arrow symbol
▪ Hashtag (#): A way to follow a topic of conversation or participate in a larger discussion (e.g. #AmericanIdol #justinbieber #jhbooktweet #jhlearn).
A hashtag is a discovery tool that allows others to find your tweets, based on topics. You can also click on a #hashtag to see all the tweets that are mentioned in real time — even from people you don’t follow.
Twitter has a great online glossary that you can refer back to, should you get confused.
Twitter is an experience. The more you use it, the more enjoyable and resourceful it will become, and you will also start to make better connections with people around the world.
Setting Up
In order to engage in conversation, you must introduce yourself.
By creating a handle @… and short bio, you can quickly describe who you are. A handle is essentially your address or calling card, and is how people will interact with you and include you in conversation. For example: @mollyb or @jackfar is a handle @jhssreads
Your profile pic and bio should also reflect who you are. You should use your actual picture and real name, so people feel more comfortable interacting with you. It is never fun talking to a cartoon, or an egg, and it feels impersonal.
Let’s start, Sign-up!
Full Name: Jordan Brown
Email: jbrown@gmail.com
User Name: @jbrown
Password: xxxxxx
——————————-
Account Info
User Name: @jbrown
Email: jbrown@gmail.com (Let others find me by email address?)
Language: english
Time Zone: 8:00 Pacific Time Zone
Tweet Location:
Tweet Media: (can warn if tweet has sensitive content and mark it)
Tweet Privacy: (do you want to make it private and friends have to be invited or let in)
Personalization: based on web sites you visit
HTTPS only: always use
Password resets: if you pick this then you have to provide info to reset your password (if you ever want to reset it.) You can just not use the password resets option, then just leave it an you can reset your password whenever you want
————————————————————–
At the top of the page you will see:
Home @Connect # Discover Me
Example of a tweet:
Example of a retweet:
Example of retweeting a retweet:
Amazing!! RT @100scopenotes @bethredford Stunning Movie Theater Turned Bookstore http://zite.to/OteK3n #TLChat #librarians #sd36learn
Example of a Modified Tweet:
Michelle Hall @JHSS_LibraryMT What Kind of Reader Are You? Luv that you’re a Book Buster @IArtLibraries I’m a Bookophile! http://goo.gl/pUyoS #sd36learn #TLChat
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION
20 Useful Hashtags for Education
Check out this video from Dean Shareski for his perspective on Twitter
I am an educational leader, a photographer, a thinker, and a parent. We live in a world of abundance on the West Coast of Canada. I learn together with wonderful people in my home, community, work, and church. My goal for my students is that they leave school with confidence based on demonstrated excellence in at least one domain of learning, and with the life, employment and thinking skills to open the many doors of their future.
Explore 
This looks like it would have been a really great session Rob. Well done.
Thanks Sheila. It was a lot of fun to put it together. It really helped consolidate a lot of my own learning about Twitter, and pushed me to learn more.
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