This was a little intro I did for teachers at Francis Howell North when I was introducing them to Twitter in the fall of 2011.

2. Twitter

3. Twitter 5 reasons why I’m on it and you should be too It’s the #1 way I get news today (think of Twitter as primarily an information exchange) It has replaced Google Reader as my one-stop shop to keep up on updates to my favorite sites It’s been my textbook for the last three years It’s a great way to keep in contact with people you know and connect with others you don’t It’s a bit more private than Facebook

4. 5 misconceptions “It’s the tool of the devil – and so it all other social media!”It really isn’t the devil’s too. Odds are, if you go to church, your church is on Twitter (or at least they should be). “I don’t want people to find out bad things about me.” You control your own message. Don’t put bad stuff out there. “If I stay off there, I won’t be talked about.”Wrong. You can’t control others’ messages regardless of whether you are there or not. “It’s just all posts about Sarah and that she had to go buy bananas at Schnucks. I don’t care about that.”Some of it is that. A vast majority isn’t. Just avoid following Sarah. “It’s dumb.”You’re dumb…ok, maybe that’s not the best retort. How ‘bout you just hear me out for a bit and we learn what it is. If you listen, and then try it out for a couple weeks and still think it’s dumb, I’ll let you use that as an reason you’re not on it.

5. Uses for Twitter in the Classroom Text updates to students without having to actually have their cell phone number. Share interesting information, like websites Practice brevity Follow Politicians, Keep up on politics Practice a foreign language Follow ideas, words and events Exchange ideas with other teachers of your subject Bring a historical figure to life, or connect with a present day prominent person Six Word Stories or Haikus Gives silent kids a way to have a voice Sick kids and parents can keep up during a field trip or a lab Connect classrooms Microblog a daily math problem for students to solve and send back the answer http://edudemic.com/2010/06/the-ultimate-twitter-guidebook/ Or go here if that above link is too big -- http://bit.ly/qZ2f82

6. There are a lot of people to follow @weatherbird Post-Dispatch Ambassador @barackobama 9,915,340 followers @MLB 1,456,063 followers @breakingnews If it’s news, it’s here @mashable Want tech news? Here’s the best. @NYtimes 3,669,361 followers @Ladygaga 13,186,386 followers @darthvader Dark Lord of the Sith Want to find some fellow teachers to start? http://bit.ly/oUF2iX

7. It is so easy Main ideas: Every tweet is a max of 140 characters Interaction is key (@replies and RT – retweets) Use a link shortener (ex: bit.ly) # hashtags make it easy to follow and search for updates on specific people or events. For example it you tweet about camp this week use #ASNEmo When you sign up for Twitter, keep your username short and easy. Long names take up too many characters when @replies or RT come through. Start by following people you know, and people involved in hobbies or activities you like. (ex: photography, running, football…)

8. Have an interest? Twitter has something for you. Go to Twitter.com and explore a little. Find an interest, see who is following them, start following those people When all else fails, use google. “Twitter R2D2” Try it out for at least a week or two before counting it out.

9. Twitter.com

10. Twitter.com

11. Hootsuite and Lists

12. #hashtags (edchat, edtech, poettweet, micropoem)

13. Twitter