Posts tagged twitter

Short version:

Work out how other educators are using twitter for their own professional development and to support one another, and do the same.

Image: Some rights reserved by Phillie Casablanca via an app called TweetWheel

Long version:

This is not really a so much a distinct step in the #15MINPLN series, but as Twitter could be really very useful, it deserves at least two posts. It takes time to work out how best to use it. Now that you are signed up, you need to start figuring how you will use it by looking at how others are using it. I’ll also include a couple more resources on twitter which get more advanced than the introductory ones.

As I a write I am in the early stages of twitter usage. It is currently great to use just for the constant stream of interesting, useful and often excellent ideas, links and resources. This ”stream” is more like a river of information that I try to deal with in small bursts (15 minutes total a day?), although it does has addictive properties. For me, short bursts are just fine to put me in touch with a number of really helpful ideas. I also know well enough that if I continue to post tweets, sharing stuff via this incredibly fast moving social network, it will offer me greater and greater returns. I have read enough people who explain that it is gradual process that requires patience. I would not say that I am currently genuinely engaged in ‘The Conversation’ via twitter yet in ways that I see some who I follow. That will come with time. There are several things I need to do to harness the power further, and several things that I have done which could help make that even easier.

Image: Some rights reserved by JoshSemans

Here are some ideas of additional steps you can take right away in order to get this up and running properly to the point where you will be able to use it little and often to hopefully very productive effect.

1) Use dedicated software that you can install on your desktop – easier to use than the twitter web page  – they update continuously for example. I recommend the strangely named ‘destroy twitter’ because it can be minimised to take up a small amount of screen space and does not use a lot of computer memory to run. I have also heard from a number of people that tweetdeck is very good and packed with features.

2) Find a focused group of people which you want to follow. It would be easy to add hundreds of people to follow if you so wished, but the more you follow, the more tweets to sift through. Try and stick with those you deem to be really useful for your purposes. Every time you discover someone who is on twitter, visit their page to see what they tend to tweet about, to screen their usefulness first.

3) Follow the followed by those you follow (!). Check who those you already know about are following. You might add some of these to your ‘network’.

4) Pay special attention to tags. For example, a prominent tag which you can search on for a stream of often useful tweets is #edtech (educational technology). Use it yourself if you think it is appropriate for your tweet – the tweet becomes more visible to others interested in that tag.

5) Start tweeting. Just start.

You don’t need to tweet all day long – this could be very disruptive to your normal life. Quality rather than quantity seems the sensible way forward. Try to plan the sorts of things you will tweet aiming for a good balance between serious and more personable, lighter-hearted stuff.

6) Spend some time to learn more about twitter. Here are two good, extensive resources. All of these could take much more than 15 minutes but you might dip into them as suits you:

One

[From http://edudemic.com (there is also an associated article hosted by teh same site:  25 Important Twitter Guides and Apps For Teachers)]

Two

[From makeuseof.com – you need to register a username and password to access this (and many other fully comprehensive tech guides).]

Next in the #15MINPLN series: No. 10 – Create A Blog For The ‘Big’ Stuff