New College New Media - Twitter basics and academic applications
1. Tyson Seburn - International Foundation Program, @seburnt
Jeff Newman – New College D.G. Ivey Library, @iveylibrary
2. Basic Twitter vocabulary
Tweet: the status Follow: act of Mentions: tweets Hashtag: #words
update (i.e. what selecting people that mention your to categorise
everyone writes on whose tweets you @twittername tweets for easy
Twitter) wish to view specifically searching
Homepage: your
base for reading
Twitter feed (i.e.
other people’s
tweets)
Feed: the column
where you see
yours and your
follower’s tweets
Trends: currently
popular categories
on Twitter
3. Now let’s set you up...
New to Twitter Twitter old-timer
Go to twitter.com Log in and look for the
Sign up with any examples of twitter
username and email. vocabulary and
organisation mentioned.
Search and follow these (e.g. Tweet, follow,
initial accounts: mentions, hashtag,
@seburnt homepage, feed, trends,
@iveylibrary etc.)
@UofTNews Follow these accounts:
@blogTO @seburnt
@CBCToronto @iveylibrary
@UofTNews
@blogTO
@CBCToronto
4. Let’s try a couple things.
1. Compose a tweet. Where does it go?
Can you see others’
tweets?
2. Compose an @ Where does it go?
mention to @seburnt. Can you see anyone
(e.g. @seburnt Hello else’s @ mention to
there!) me?
3. Say something about Where does it go?
this workshop with the Can you see anyone
hashtag #newmedia else’s?
How can you find
them?
5. A couple other features...
@Connect: You #Discover: See Direct messages: Me: Your profile
can see @ tweets Twitter think Send & receive page = a collection
mentions and new are good for you, msgs only you and of your photo,
followers in one your followers’ mian that person can see description &
place. activities, new tweets.
accounts to follow,
etc.
6. Some useful points...
• If you don’t follow anyone, there’s no point.
• If no one follows you, there’s no point.
• Follow people and try interacting. Then they often
follow you.
• Search for key words or people to follow (e.g.
University of Toronto).
• Use “tweet” buttons on websites, blogs, journals, etc.
http://bit.ly/X3B6xV
• Retweet (RT) your followers’ good tweets (using the
link below any tweet). They will do the same for you.
• There is an etiquette. http://bit.ly/X3ApEU
10. Operational points
Twitter feed displayed live in class
Used a new hash tag every week to help
students search for specific content
#week1
#week2
#week3, etc.
11. Rankin’s “best practices”
Break into small groups and tweet best
ideas – then allow students to respond.
TA responded to tweets in real time.
Students could also submit “tweets” by
hand to the TA who would post them.
Used the “favourites” feature to indicate
material which might appear on the
exam.
12. Rankin’s Limitations
140 characters limits detail
Replies to tweets appear in the normal
stream, not attached to the initial tweet.
Ranking found this disorienting
16. What do students think?
[Tara] Johnson says tweeting in Spanish has also helped
her grasp and retain the Spanish language because she
and other students often receive almost instant feedback
on their tweets from Furness.
"I love tweeting in Spanish!" she says. "It really helps
build my Spanish vocabulary and allows me to practice
grammar. And if I happen to tweet a verb in the wrong
form, Professor Furness will tweet back within like 10
minutes correcting me.”
http://r.umn.edu/about-umr/news/UMR_CONTENT_373255.html
28. Best practices
Make it active and Dunlap, J.C. &
relevant to course Lowenthal, P.R.
content and (2009). Tweeting
assignments the Night Away:
Define clear Using Twitter to
expectations Enhance Social
Model responsible Presence. Journal of
Twitter use Information
Systems Education.
Build Twitter into Retrieved November
assessment 19, 2009
Stay active, too.
29. Like most, if not all Web 2.0
tools, Twitter is not
appropriate
for all instructional situations.
For instance, Grosseck and
Holotescu (2008) identify a
number of problems with using
Twitter for educational
purposes
Notes de l'éditeur
Go through this in presentation mode first to familiarise attendees with twitter lingo before actually going to the site itself.
Go through and set up a dummy account as attendees are doing so. Have them follow these five just to get started and so that we can use them in the next section too.
In generalHave attendees try these out on their laptops if available. During #2Have Jeff tweet to me at this point. After #3Search for the #newmedia. Alexandra will have been tweeting using this hashtag throughout the workshop. Have everyone search after Jeff’s part too to see the progression.
Show these parts on the actual Twitter site as we talk about them.
Show the fourth point on Twitter itself. (i.e. Searching key words to find ppl to follow)Show the fifth point on the Scientific American site (i.e. Learn how to use tweet buttons on sites)Show the RT point on my own Twitter.Transition to Jeff’s presentation.
Dr. Rankin is one of the first university-level educators that I have found who was using twitter in the classroom. I am going to show you a couple of segments of video based on her first use of twitter in 2009.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
The students comments are displayed on the screen and, theoretically, all 90 can be tweeting at the same time. This offers a hybrid approach to the “sage on the stage” lecture format because the “back channel” can influence the shape of the lecture
Ryan FurnessSpanish language instructorTwitter as optional, extra credit offeringStudents used twitter as a venue for practicing their Spanish – getting almost instant feedback from the prof.
Open up the twitter feed
This conversation is interesting. Account protected?
A protected account is only visible to followers. You need to follow me in order to see any tweet that I have made.
Traditional organization of a language class
There is now the possibility of extending the interaction outside of class time. Students can interact and practice with each other, get feedback from the professor or, because this is an open forum, perhaps they will engage a native speaker (or industry professional), etc. The way that Prof. Furness has things organized it looks like he is largely reponsible for vetting all of information. But there is no reason why a peer in the class couldn’t take charge, right? It opens up the possibility of taking some of the learning opportunities out into the world. One instructor had their students attend an upper year seminar and tweet their experience to their classmates – they used twitter to create a shared experience.
The text on the left is from (Junco, R., Heiberger G., & Loken’s 2010 paper The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grade. Journal of computer assisted learning. 27 119-132. and illustrates one of the powerful impacts of enabling twitter – cross-student communicationThe column on the right is from Mark Sample of George Mason University who asked his class to define the work “alien” and post it to the classes twitter hashtag. The variety of definitions sparked upcoming class discussions.
Mark Sample’s matrix of twitter in the classroom
Tweetchat allows you to follow a single hashtag in real time.
Hootsuite is like a twitter swiss army knife and actually replicates many of the functions we’ve just discussed. But its big secret weapon is “Scheduled tweets.” Want to send a strategically timed tweet in the middle of a class? Want to set up weekly reminders for assignments? This is your tool.