Beginning Twitter at UDGAgora

Learner Selected Studios

 

There were requests for a Twitter studio at the #UDGAgora so I’m happy to step in to help out.

Why Use Twitter

I recently organized a workshop at the Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Querétaro and reached out through Twitter for good links, they came in quickly and created a conversation.

#Crowdsource time. What is your favourite link for educators just joining @twitter #ccourses #tec21#udgagora

— Ken Bauer Favel (@ken_bauer) July 3, 2015

Perhaps input from @Bali_Maha @gcouros @cogdog @thomasson_engl @guster4lovers @courosa @GoogleGuacamole https://t.co/75Gu1O1Ty4

— Ken Bauer Favel (@ken_bauer) July 3, 2015

Howard Rheingold responded with a link to his post about his answer to students asking him why he used Twitter.

Maha Bali responded with her link she uses for her education students, a Twitter Scavenger Hunt.

Twitter Guide

George Couros responded with the best (that I know of) guide to Twitter for Educators. It truly is excellent and is updated often.

Jonathan Worth replied with links in his course Phonar which has information on Twitter and many other tools that a connected educator should have in her toolbox.

Twitter Basics (Challenge, use each of these)

• We use the “@” symbol to tag a Twitter use, this is known as a mention and will alert them to the mention. This creates conversations between people.
• We use the “#” symbol to tag a topic. This allows us to filter the stream of Tweets by topics and follow conversations.
• You can follow people on Twitter (and they can follow you). This is a single direction relationship, don’t feel bad if others don’t follow you back.
• You can send private messages or direct messages (DMs) to other users. By default people can only send you DMs if you follow them. This can be changed in the preferences.
• If somebody is annoying, you can block them at various levels.
• You can have your tweets private but I don’t personally recommend that use for Twitter as a professional and connected educator.
• You can attach images directly or via a link to Flickr.
• You can include links to videos, articles or anything else.

Advanced Topics

• Get involved in a Twitter Chat. I participate often in the #flipclass chat which runs every Monday at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern (U.S. timezones)
• Alternate clients exist for Twitter besides webpage (on computer) and the default Twitter app on your phone/tablet.  I love TweetDeck on the web and as an app for my MacbookPro

Feature Image Credit

flickr photo by Rosaura Ochoa http://flickr.com/photos/rosauraochoa/3283888598 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

Your Turn

How are you using Twitter? What resources and tips do you have to share?