Tweeting with Twitter !!

Tweeting with Twitter

Date: 9th Sep 2017/Saturday

This time my blog explores the world of Twitter. When I started writing I had absolutely no idea the wonders Twitter can do. I thought it was just similar to Facebook or any other social networking tool online but as I explored my thoughts completely changed. Its a very powerful educational tool and can be of immense benefits provided used appropriately. It comes loaded with  ample opportunities for professional development for teachers,educators, professionals related to any field, beginners, students etc.

The blog consists of some ideas on how to use Twitter in education, for professional development, for surveys and polls, for connecting with experts, joining a wider community, staying in with the latest news and much more.

As most of us know, Twitter is basically a social networking tool and an online news service which gives us current news and updates of whats happening around the world, what are major events taking place, whats going on around with key players around the world, what are the topics under discussion and the list is endless.

Its a free service but to to actively participate in the discussions you need to create a free login account. Otherwise you would be only able to read the tweets "messages" but not comment or create your own. The messages or tweets we write are restricted to 140 characters only. But in case you want to write more than that, you could explore the option of tweet thread. You could tweet thread by replying to your own thread. 

Another interesting feature is the Twitter Polls. It can actually give you a good insight of what people around you are thinking about, choices they make, their views about a product etc. While just exploring on the web I came across some interesting ideas on using Twitter polls. You can post a question to your followers who have to choose anonymously from the two short responses, poll remains open for 24 hours and the results will be public. For example when doing research or writing a  blog, usually most data is gathered from secondary sources, you could directly get data from the source at hand through polls by posting a question to your followers.

Twitter can also be used to set up quizzes on different lesson topics, could be very helpful in engaging students and keep them motivated through out lessons.

Another interesting idea that I found while exploring an online blog on uses of Twitter in education is how creatively teachers could use hashtags on twitter to create a multi  classroom and multi grade level discussions. For example students of grade 4 and 5 could start a discussion on water cycle, or any other topic of mutual interest.

Another creative idea was encouraging students to write short stories using twitter in just 140 characters. We could use @Veryshortstory for sharing students creative stories. Students could be encouraged to comment or use tweet thread to extend stories.Students could also be encouraged to create an imaginary character on Twitter, each student could add a sentence to the story character. Teachers can then encourage students to create stories of their collectively created story character. 

Students could also be engaged in word play games for example one could write an anagram , post 8 or so letters and see how many new words can be formed.  Teachers could introduce a post a word game (guess if the word is a synonym, antonym or homonym). A good activity to enhance vocabulary.

Students could also be asked to summarize their learning at the end of a lesson in 140 characters. teacher could get a quick feedback on her lesson. Students could also give feedback at a later time  too.

Teachers could encourage students to connect to their mentors on twitter, these could be professionals and experts in their fields. Students could follow their mentors, who could help them sty in touch with updated news, latest rends in their field of study, inspire them and also lead to future jobs.

Another innovative feature that can prove very beneficial for teachers, educators, students etc is by joining twitter chats. Twitter chats are scheduled events focusing around a particular topic using a specific hashtag, aiming to gather a wider audience (might be experts) on the same platform igniting a discussion.I found a twitter chat calendar online, which listed details, time, description of the upcoming online chats. We can join these chats and be a part of global collaboration online. We can schedule such chats ourselves for a number of purposes for example to gather information, initiate a discussion around a topic, for an online debate among students, surveys, research etc. While scrolling through the online article I found some interesting education related hashtags which we could all follow, these are #edchat, #edcampkc , #elemchat ,  #kinderchat , #edtech , #gbl etc These were shared by Shelly S. Terrell, author of the “Teacher Reboot Camp”. 

Teachers, educators etc could  join different groups, can get updates on upcoming PD events. For example @Seesaw is a student driven digital portfolio, students can gather and document their learning and share with parents and teachers. I came across their free online PD week for September 2017, it hardly took 2-3 minutes to register online for a PD session with the expert.

Another interesting thing we can do with twitter is to make a Twitter Wall. As  per my little understanding twitter walls could be used for branding your product. Its one wall which can be used for showcasing your information on a wide screen collected form different social media forums, for the purpose of branding in conferences, events etc. These can be used to bring in a larger audience in a conversation, could be useful in classrooms too. We could use walls.io for this. This lets you collect all social media information using a hashtag on a social hub. 

Brian Paul Hill  a school administrator and blogger shares his views in an article on "Using Twitter for Professional development" and I completely agree with him. He writes that its important that everyone has a Twitter account, as educators, experts, students etc we need to keep ourselves updated with the latest and current information, we have to be consumers information  else we will become stagnant and complacent in our profession. He also refers to Instapaper for managing and organizing information gathered from Twitter.  There are times when we like certain links, articles but we might not be able to read at that time, they could be saved to Instapaper and read later. 

Before wrapping I just wanted to share something interesting I came across on Twitter, the difference between using Facebook and Twitter. Two different platforms, different approaches and different uses. This might help people plan activities around these two platforms more effectively.

I still feel there is a lot to be explored, and this blog post might not do justice but it has ample resources and ideas that can be used to do some wonderful and amazing work both in and outside classrooms.

Enjoy Reading till my next blog post on Tweeting with Twitter 2 :)

Sheeba Ajmal

References:

1. Twitter
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Accessed online on 25th Aug 2017

2. Tweet Thread

Link: https://business.twitter.com/en/blog/How-Tweet-threads.html?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=twitter

Accessed on 25th Aug 2017

3. Using Twitter for Professional Development
Link: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/using-twitter-for-professional-development.shtml
Accessed Online on 8th Sep 2017

4. 10 Amazing ways to use Twitter in Education
Link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education/
Accessed online on 8th Sep 2017

5. Twitter Wall
Link: https://walls.io/
Accessed online on 8th Sep 2017

6. 7 Ideas for using Twitter in Classroom
Link: https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/7-ideas-for-using-twitter-in-the-classroom
Accessed online on 8th Sep 2017

7. 50 uses of Twitter in Classroom
Link: http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom
Accessed online on 8th Sep 2017

8. 35 Interesting ways to use Twitter
Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Kv-Z9SXIDuw0mmpPhFOqmAtFEdKuwF5XxqGrjUfY5vA/present#slide=id.i316
Accessed online on 8th Sep 2017

9. Seesaw
Link: https://web.seesaw.me/
Accessed online on 8th Sep 2017