Twitter+Integration

Throughout this course, you will be engaged in a set of Twitter integration activities and gain abundant hands-on experience of the intensive usage of Twitter as one of the trendiest Web 2.0 tools in order to advance your understanding of using Web 2.0 tools for educational purposes. The major purpose for integrating Twitter use is to enhance student-student and student-teacher interactions and increase student engagement and foster a collaborative online learning community.

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*If you already have a Twitter account, you can choose to use your own or create a new one. If your primary use of Twitter is socialization or entertainment, I encourage you to create a new one because you may find the two conflict. The purpose of Twitter for this class is to foster your personal learning network and engage you in Twitter-supported community learning. In another word, it is for pure educational purpose. I don't mind you use Twitter to connect with friends, but mostly you should be using it to LEARN in this class. I don't want you to always look for friends to chat with or celebrities to follow when I ask you to use it for this class. 2. **Once you have an account, add your name and Twitter handle HERE so your classmates can follow you.** This will be a great head start to your Twitter-based Personal Learning Network! 3. **In the meantime, follow the**[| **class account.**] You may want to see how this work in this class by looking at previous tweets posted in this class account. You can also start following people that this class account follows- they are either former students coming from previous classes I taught, or educational technology-related Twitter accounts. They are either good people to connect with or good resources you can gain from. 4. **Use our class hashtag #edct2030** Put the hashtag in any place of your tweet so that me and your classmates and search for it and know it's coming from the class!
 * 1. Create a Twitter account.**
 * If you don't already have a Twitter account (or would like to set up a new one to use for this class), visit Twitter.com to set one up. Be sure to add a profile pic so you're not just another new egg! Also, make sure your account is not private - you need to tweet publicly in order to participate in the activity in which we will eventually engage.

=Resources=

GuideBook
Check out this useful and thorough Twitter GuideBook for educators.

Terms to Know
The Essential Twitter Dictionary from MediaBistro Twitter Dictionary: A Guide to Understanding Twitter Lingo from Webopedia Searchable Twittonary of Twitter terms

Is There Anybody Out There?
If you're looking for K-12 educators and other professionals in your field, there are plenty can be found in Twittersphere. To follow, check out HERE - Feel free to add your own Twitter name to the list. You can find more individuals [|here].

Articles & Blog Entries

 * How Twitter Can Be Used as a Powerful Educational Tool
 * Fostering Creative Thought Through Tweets: A Principal's Reflection
 * How Twitter is Reinventing Collaboration Among Educators
 * 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom

Hashtags, Chats, Who to Follow

 * 300+ Educational Hashtag Being Used Right Now!
 * Who to Follow: Educational Stakeholders
 * [|Education Hashtags]

Twitter Chats
Twitter chats occur synchronously and have a dedicated hashtag that allows individuals to participate. There are many live Twitter chats that are relevant to K-12 stakeholders. media type="custom" key="25455766" **<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">#edchat ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">for example, is well established and will offer the opportunity to tweet with a focused group of professionals. The chat takes place at 12 noon and 7pm Eastern Time every Tuesday. Another very good chat, especially for newbies, is **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">#ntchat **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">, a chat for new teachers that takes place Wed at 8pm Eastern Time - this one is not a fast-moving and is a great one for pre-service teachers, new teachers, and educators who are new to Twitter. Edudemic provides a useful list of quality K-12 chats here: @http://edudemic.com/2012/01/20-hashtags/ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Archives of #edchat: []
 * What Twitter hashtags are?**


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">An Index to Educational Twitter Hashtags ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ee; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">[]


 * <span class="wiki_link_ext"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Don't forget when <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">[|: Weekly Twitter Chat Times] **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">C **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">ontribute to the conversation **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">! You will do this by tweeting with the chat’s hashtag (e.g., #edchat). You can address someone in the conversation by including the @ symbol before their Twitter name (e.g., @TeachTechGirl). You can also use the Reply option to respond to someone’s tweet. You can share what someone else has tweeted via the Retweet option and save a tweet to reference later by marking it as a favorite. If your are on a computer, you may find it helpful to open 3 tabs:

media type="custom" key="23654500"
 * 1) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">**Home:** where you can enter your tweet
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">**Search:** where you’ve searched and are monitoring the chat's hashtag to keep up with the conversation [Make sure you select "All" at the top of the page where you've searched the hashtag to view all tweets and not just "top" tweets].
 * 3) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">**@Connect:** where you can see if/when others in the chat respond to your tweets or try to interact with you
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Here's a video explanation of how to employ this approach: **