Twitter – an introduction for teachers

As promised in my earlier blog post “Why Twitter is good for teachers – thanks to…” here is the video and some brief written tips, on Twitter for teachers. This video was part of a longer presentation I gave to an international group of teachers at the World ORT Wingate Seminar 2011 on Digital Content Creation for learning.

www.twitter.com
Twitter is not just a website for celebrity gossip, it’s a constant stream of information from the people you choose to follow. If you choose to follow teachers or people with similar interests to you, you will get a stream of information relevant to your interests.

I follow about 1500 people, most teachers and educators and some with other interests.
Following someone doesn’t mean I agree with them always, in fact I follow some people who have very different opinions to me so I get to hear different perspectives.

Twitter helps me in many ways

1. As a supportive community – people are always williing to give their support or opinions when necessary.
2. As a great source of new websites, resources and ideas – People are always posting links to great new resources, blog posts and personal experiences.
3. As a way of sharing my practice, ideas and blog posts
4. As a personal search engine – if you ask for help – people normally respond with help or ideas – though it’s not instantaneous and you sometimes need to ask a few times.

A good place to start is by signing up, having a look at my twitter profile www.twitter.com/nstone and seeing who I follow and who follows me. If they seem interesting click to follow them, you could even send them a brief message to say hi and to tell them why they look interesting.
You can also look at twitter lists to see who they are following. Users sometimes group people they follow into lists, you can see them on their profile. These lists can be great ways to find interesting people fast.

If you are a new user and scared about privacy you may wish to choose a private account – then only people you give permission to can see your twitter messages. Going public means anyone can see your messages, but it also means anyone can help you and opens your tweets up to a much wider potential audience. If you’re nervous start private and you can always change later, even for a private account, as with any online communication, don’t assume confidentiality of anything you write!

Good luck