Updated presentation for

1. Kurtis Hewson
Faculty Associate
University of Lethbridge
@hewsonk27
Twitter for Educators:
Why Start Now?
Education Undergraduate Society

2. Additional Resources
• http://kurtishewson.wordpress.com
– Related additional resources and
further information
• Twitter for Pre-Service Teachers
– Scoop.It page with resources, videos
and other things related to Twitter

3. Essential Questions
• Why start now?
• How do I start an account?
• What are some basic terms/features to know
• What are some general Twitiquette rules to be
aware of?
• What are hashtags?
• What are chats?
• What are Twitter Clients?

4. Why Start Now
• Establish a network (PLN) of other
educators and supports prior to entering
your first classroom
• Find information fast and keep current of
trends and resources
• Develop and strengthen technology skills
• Network – open doors to connections and
possible contacts

5. Why Twitter?
Sharing from Tweeters in the room…

6. Starting an Account
• Go to http://twitter.com
• Consider:
• Choose your name wisely – consider your “brand”
for a uniform on-line presence
• Complete your profile, including a blog address
• Include profile details that will be informative to
other professionals and capture you as a
professional
• Begin tweeting and following others

7. Some basics
RT – Retweet (passing along
someone else’s tweet) – shares with
@ – Reply (references the initial author
an increasing circle of followers
or directly sends the tweet to another
user (but seen by all followers)
# – Hashtag (posts the
tweet on a list that many
more people may follow) –
distributes the tweet to a
larger, often particular
audience
Shortened URL – used to shorten long
url’s (Twitter Clients do this automatically, Direct Message – same as an email
or go to https://bitly.com) to a Twitter follower – only seen by
the message recipient

8. Twitiquette
• Post – share thoughts, resources, other
people to follow…but no need to share
every detail of your life
• Thank you to those that follow you
• Block spam
• Consider who views your posts…
• Ask for who to follow

9. Hashtags
• Great way to follow a topic or get a
tweet out to a wider audience
• Will begin to observe frequently
used or useful hashtags
– #abed, #edchat, #uleth
• Great for creating a
conversation/backchannel
• Used for chats

10. Chats
• Utilize hashtags
• Formal chats scheduled on pre-determined
topics (list on the blog)
• Can view past chats online
• Can “participate” or just observe
• #ntchat – Wednesday, 6 pm MST
• Establish your own chats

11. Twitter Clients
• Make it
easy to
utilize
Twitter on
your
desktop
or mobile
device
• View
multiple
social
media
platforms

12. Questions and Further Support
• Questions??
• http://kurtishewson.wordpress.com
• Follow me @hewsonk27
• List of U of L Education students
– @hewsonk27/u-of-l-education-students