As much as I have tried to deny it, in the past few months I have learned that Twitter is kind of a “Big Deal”! With 175 million users, I can no longer pretend that Twitter is a passing fad with a few passionate users – it’s here and it’s here to stay! While under 5 years old, Twitter has become an integral part of today’s modern societies. Tweets have been known to brake international news, used to “pop the question” and have even lead to arrests and jail time. While some claim twitter is the ultimate form of narcissism, my experience and research has taught me that Twitter is whatever you make it. Narcissistic or not, I am determined to give Twitter a chance – here’s hoping I don’t end up in jail!
Landing in the Twitterverse – Guidebook Handy: Learning About Twitter:
My experience learning about Twitter was much like being dropped in a foreign country and trying to navigate a new culture – complete with new vocabulary and customs. For myself, the actual technology of Twitter was simple; however learning how to consume and contribute to the Twitterverse was a challenge. Compared with the other Web 2.0 tools we’ve explored, Twitter has had the most new terms and etiquette for me to become familiar with. I assumed as with travel, that as one explores the Twitterverse more, its becomes easier to understand. With this assumption in mind, I decided to jump into the Twitterverse and see if I could navigate this new world on my own...Ok so I wasn’t completely on my own, I had my trusty travel guide (thanks to this week’s Trailfire) to help me along my way...
The best analogy I found for Twitter was comparing Twitter to a cocktail party. At the party you are walking around the room and eaves dropping on little snippets of all the conversations. Some of these conversations may be more interesting and/or relevant to you and you might want to learn more, at which point you can join the discussion. I had never thought of Twitter as a starting point for a discussion, my previous assumption was that tweets were the beginning and the end of a conversation. I have learned that some tweets are just that, one-offs, however many are part of a much larger network of conversations, debates and collaborative thinking.
Another a-ha moment I had was just how big the Twitterverse is! As I mentioned earlier, Twitter has 175 million users, that’s a lot but I didn’t really process how many it actually was. When looking for people to follow, I couldn’t believe how many familiar names I found. I was also very excited to find many of my favourite celebrities on Twitter. My personal favourite being Martha Stewart – who I am currently following, who knew Twitter is a "Good Thing"?! Not only that, I was impressed by the number of well respected leaders in education there were tweeting about education related issues. I started reading through the tweets of those I’m following and was quickly confused with all of the lingo and symbols. I did a little research and the most useful twitter vocabulary I learned was:
Hashtag: Essentially this is a tag. Users create hashtags to link their tweets on particular topics. To indicate a hastag, the “#” symbol appears directly before the tag. For example the hashtag for Social Media would appear: #SocialMedia.
Tweetup: A Tweet Up is when a bunch of tweeters (usually with the same interest(s)) who only know each other through Twitter, meet up in real life.
FollowFriday: Follow Friday (FF) is a recommendation for others to follow someone you mentioned in your tweet.
@reply: This is used to show that your tweet is in reply to another’s users’ tweet. For example “@JohnDoe, I have read that book too.”
Retweet: RT@username is used to acknowledge that you have retweeted another user’s tweet.
There is lots of other Twitter vocabulary, however I found these terms/symbols to be the most helpful in reading and comprehending tweets. If you want to learn more, check out the Twictionary.
After reading a few tweets, I was ready to post one myself. I was surprised how apprehensive I was to post a tweet so I decided to look up some info on tweeting before actually posting one. I learned that brevity and accuracy is key when it comes to effective tweeting. Time.com noted that many tweets have an “unexpected depth” to them – proving that tweeting can report more than what one had for breakfast! While 140 characters is not many, if chosen wisely they can communicate quite a bit of information. That being said, I didn’t have much to say that day! I did end up taking the plunge, and was proud to post my first tweet.
The next day I decided to post a tweet with a link in it to an education related website. I had found this webpage which had many interactive ebooks – all of which are free! I included the hashtag #teachers in my post to help ensure my tweet got to as many teachers as possible. Any parent/teacher working with emergent readers would find this site useful as many of the books have audio included to help early readers through the text.
What did I learn through my experience? I learned just how massive and complex the Twitterverse is. I realise that fully understanding Twitter etiquette, language and customs is a process and isn’t something you can “master” as it’s always evolving – much like a country’s culture. I have learned that exposure to the Twitterverse through consumption and contribution of tweets is my best bet to becoming a more seasoned tweeter.
Tweeting My Life Away: Twitter, My Personal Life & Learning:
Facebook is my preferred method of keeping track of my friends’ lives and goings on and for this reason I don’t intend to use Twitter to keep up with my friends. Twitter is more useful to me as an information portal. I have subscribed to the BBC and CBC on Twitter and have been happy to receive news information literally as it is unfolding. I also appreciate that the news is presented in short-and-sweet tweets, allowing me to get sense of what’s going on in the world in a matter of seconds. Because these news organizations often include links in their tweets, finding out more about a news story is only a click away. In the past, I have spent hours on newspaper websites reading through the day’s headlines - however I now start with Twitter for the day’s news and use newspaper websites to supplement the information I get through Twitter. On a more recreational note, being the foodie I am, I have enjoyed using Twitter to find out information on great recipes and restaurants. As I mentioned earlier, I am currently following Martha Stewart in addition to other celebrity chefs. Many of these chefs post links to free seasonal recipes – something I always appreciate. Some also post restaurant recommendations in their tweets. I used a tweeted restaurant recommendation on my recent trip to Cape Cod – thanks Giada! Being able to follow and learn from my favourite celebrity chefs is a fun bonus to being on Twitter!
In regards to my personal learning, Twitter offers many opportunities. Following educational discussions on Twitter has proven very simple. Tweets are quick to read and are often responded to instantly – the speed of professional discussions on Twitter is incredibly fast, making following and participating in discussions exciting and easy. I have enjoyed watching the discussions on education related topics as they “get me thinking” about many issues in today’s schools. While this information is valuable, I was having trouble using Twitter to find information I needed on specific topics. I tried searching out a few hashtags and was pleasantly surprised to see how effective this was. In the summer when I was working on my Inquiry course, I didn’t fully understand how Twitter worked and what the posts I was reading meant. I saw tweets as the end point, and tried to use the measly 140 characters to get my information. I now understand that tweets are merely the beginning and the hashtags and links in a given post are the most valuable for information finding. I was disappointed to read that you can’t actually subscribe to hashtags through Twitter as hashtags are a user created convention – so performing a Twitter search for a specific hashtag is my best bet. I had considered getting a Tweetdeck account to allow me to follow particular hashtags, however I opted out of it as I had too many hashtags of interest and would feel overwhelmed by the number of tweets I was receiving. Not only that, at different times I am looking for different information and like being able to search out different hashtags as I want them. Using Twitter to help me as I work through this TL-DL program will be an adjustment as I am not used to employing social networking sites for academic research. I do intend to keep up on educational matters via Twitter and also look forward to searching out hashtags to find information when I’m researching. The great thing about using Twitter for academic purposes is that you are almost always guaranteed the most current information.
Tweetcher: Twitter and Our Schools:
Twitter can be a wonderful tool for professional development and connecting with like-minded educators. As school leaders teachers/TLs we need to promote the use of Twitter for professional purposes to our colleagues. This is a challenge, as many of today’s school staffs have preconceived ideas and negative feelings about Twitter. I will admit that while I’m a younger teacher in the district, I was not fully buying into Twitter before I learned more about it. I saw Twitter as a self-indulgent time-waster that added more complication to my already busy life. The notion that Twitter is just like Facebook status updates is a common and inaccurate misconception. My exposure to Twitter has helped me to see the depth of the discussions on this site known for its bravity. When promoting professional Twitter use in our schools, we need to educate our colleagues on the following points:
1. Tweets are not the extent of a discussion, but rather the beginning.
2. Useful and current links are often posted via Tweets.
3. Tweets are short-and-sweet, offering a quick way to get information.
4. Understanding hashtags and other Twitter conventions helps users to better understand and create tweets.
5. People are tweeting all the time – information on Twitter is up-to-the-minute.
6. Twitter can be fun.
Once our colleagues have begun to see the potential of using Twitter for professional development and communication, us school leaders need to lead by example and offer support. As with this course, suggesting a list of education related people to follow on Twitter would be helpful. Once staff members begin to follow “experts” they will become more comfortable tweeting themselves. Staff members could follow one another and continue professional dialogue outside of the school walls. Particularly useful would be the ability for staffs to stay connected through school breaks such as July and August. Us teachers are constantly searching out new resources and/or ideas through our breaks, tweeting them to our colleagues would be a convenient way to share our ideas.
Not only can staff members from a given school connect via Twitter, but Twitter makes it just as easy to connect with educators from around the district, province, country and world. No longer are teachers/TL working in isolation – professionals from around the world can share ideas and inspire one another. In her article, "Virtual PLC's At Their Best: A Daily Diatribe", Paige Jaeger encourages teacher-librarians to venture into the Twitterverse and follow others. She also emphasizes just how easy it is to connect with those you work with and others around the world. She suggests teacher-librarians following INFOlit4U – a great source of PD info!
Using Twitter as an educational tool with Elementary aged students is not practical nor feasible. That being said, Twitter could be an excellent tool for parent communication. School/library programs could be promoted through tweets. Not only that, teachers could tweet reminders about permission forms, special events and/or homework to parents. This responsible use of Twitter as a tool for parent-teacher communication is a great model for students as they begin to show interest in social networking. Researchers reported in, “Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviors Regarding the Use of Social Networking Sites”, states that parents need to take a more active role in promoting responsible internet use. What better way than modelling the behaviour themselves?
As students move on to middle and high school the potential of using twitter in the classroom is realised. Cell phones and ipods are commonly in the hands of our middle and high school students and these toys can become tools when using Twitter for educational purposes. I was astounded to read the following statistic on Liz Kolb’s blog “From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning”: at schools where cell phones are banned, 58% of teens use them during class anyway. This is an interesting and astounding number – not only do more than half of our teens have cells phones, they use them constantly! Fighting cell phone use in our schools is pointless, finding ways to integrate cell phones and similar technologies (i.e. ipods) to enhance learning is a much better way to spend our energy. Student engagement is bound to improve as we embrace these technologies. Not only that, Twitter is another way to connect with our students in and outside of school and many students would find the briefness of tweets less intimidating and time consuming than composing and/or reading an email.
Twitter can be an incredible tool for class discussion. With today’s increasingly large classes, using Twitter as a forum for class discussions is not only fun, but also practical. Teachers can tweet a discussion question at the beginning of a period and as students settle into their desks, students can tweet their responses. Tweeting is handy as students are limited to 140 characters and therefore one student can’t dominate the conversation and for those who are having trouble coming up with ideas 140 characters is a manageable amount to share. Not only does this get the class ready to learn, shy students can share their thoughts in a less personal way. On a practical note, students absent from class can join in on discussions and/or view them at a later time. In his article “Teaching with Twitter”, Jeffery R. Young remarks that allowing students to have discussions with the teacher and other students via Twitter changes the dynamics in the class as it gives students an equal voice to the teacher.
Another exciting use for Twitter as a teaching tool is for differentiated learning. Many of the students most checked out of school are those who are most checked into their ipods and/or cell phones. These are the students who are at risk of being left behind. Through tweeting, assignment and studying information (i.e. “Hint: check out pg. 34 for tomorrow’s Socials’ test”) could be sent to students. Teachers could tweet reminders for homework, supplies needed and events for the following day. This techie form of communication could be all that these students need to get on track. Not only would they be more engaged, when they see that their teacher is trying to meet them where they’re at, they would be more comfortable asking for clarification via tweets.
Keeping up with current events is easy to do via twitter. If I were teaching middle or high school level Socials and/or Language Arts, I would encourage my students to follow CBC via Twitter. Students could retweet and remark on news stories, increasing dialogue between students and developing critical thinking skills. Through use of Twitter, students would be able to keep up with the news of the day quickly and with minimal reading.
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The most powerful opportunity Twitter offers it’s users is the ability to connect. Whether it be with your favourite celebrity, news channel, student, colleague, expert or friend, Twitter makes it easy for us to share our ideas. Tweets are fast to create and fast to consume – making Twitter discussions interesting and spirited. While intimidating at first, becoming comfortable and understanding Twitter is easier than one might think. Twitter is a tool that can be employed for personal learning, professional development, increasing student engagement and recreation. I look forward to continuing to explore the Twitterverse.
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