1. Brevity is the Soul of
(t)Wit
Using Twitter to Role-Play the Classics

2. Overview
• Intro to Twitter
• Background of project
• Getting started
• Web 2.0 tools to help you stay organized
• Applications for classroom
• Modifications/Other uses

4. The Experiment
• Can we use Twitter to role-play Hamlet in
real time?
• What would we learn if we tried it?
• What is the value of trying this in the
classroom?

5. Intro to Twitter
• What is Twitter?
• Creative uses of Twitter
• Such Tweet Sorrow

6. Twitter is an online social networking
and microblogging service that
enables its users to send and read
text-based posts of up to 140
characters, informally known as
"tweets".

8. The Basics

9. Signing up for an account
• Pick a short name
• Fill out your bio
• Upload a picture
(preferably a real
one)

10. Connecting
• Follow someone you know
• Type a message like:
@danikabarker Just joined Twitter. Looking to
connect.
• Hit enter or the send button.

11. Different Tweets
• @ Messages: direct your message to someone’s
attention. Anyone can see them. Recipients don’t
have to follow you. They look like this:
@danikabarker Hi! What’s up?
• D Messages: can only be sent to people who follow
you. Can only be seen by the recipient.
They look like this: D danikabarker Hi! What’s up?

12. Retweets
• RT: Retweeting is a way
to forward interesting
tweets or links to your
followers.

13. Hashtags
#ECOO11

16. The Dress Rehearsal
• Audition Sheet
• Calendar
• Blog

17. The Performance

18. Multimedia

21. Discoveries
Twitter=the great
equalizer
“There are no
small parts, only
small actors”

22. Implications for the
Classroom

23. Technology doesn’t necessarily = engagement

24. Big Ideas
"What is the value in re-imagining a
text using social media?”

25. Be the Director
Set up the Twitter accounts yourself
not so much for policing but so you can
see all the planning that happens through
direct messages.
An email account is necessary to set up a
Twitter account, but I’ve found a good
workaround is to use variations on a
gmail address such as yourname
+student1@gmail.com.

26. Lists
Create a list and add all the character handles to the list.
This way people can follow a list rather than each
character:
eg/ http://twitter.com/#!/Horatio_79/brevity-2

27. It’s about what happens
in the wings
Don’t think expect the students to perform the play.
Have them perform that happens “between the lines”

28. Understudies
Have more than one person play each role.

29. Don’t grade this.
Not everything we do as teachers needs to be
graded, although this is sometimes a tough sell for
students. Assess, and have the students reflect but
the second you tell students they’re being graded, it
raises the level of anxiety and puts a stop to
creativity and playfulness, especially when trying
something new.

30. Other Applications
•History role playing: http://twitter.com/#!/
danikabarker/mr-t-s-history-class
•Backchanneling
•Homework reminders
•Developing a PLN

31. Links
• Brevity is the Soul of • Brevity Twitter List:
(t)Wit website @Horatio_79/brevity-2
• Brevity Blog • Create a fake newspaper
• Such Tweet Sorrow • Corkboard
website
• Wallwisher
• My presentation on
Twitter • Google Search Story