This is the PowerPoint we compiled to teach others how to use twitter in the classroom.

1. Tweeting Towards Success
Using Twitter in the Classroom

2. What is Twitter?
 Twitter is a social networking site that acts as a mini-blog, where you
can send out your thoughts, pictures, videos, and ideas to your
followers!
Some reading….
 Nine reasons why you should use twitter
in schools
 # Interesting Ways to use Twitter in
the Classroom (a collaborative
effort)
 The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook For
Teachers
 Twitter for teachers collaborative ebook
Video: Click here to Play

3. How Do I Use It?
 You have 140 characters to say what you have to say.
 You can follow others and they can follow you.
 You can connect with anyone, for any reason, at any
time!

4. Signing Up
 Go to http://www.twitter.com
 The page looks like this
 You need to enter your name,
Email, and password

5. Signing Up for Twitter
Type in your:
 Full names (Twitter is
about real people!)
 Username (Make it
relevant)
 Password (choose
something that you will
remember)
 E-mail address
 Tick e-mail find- this way
your regular e-mail
friends can find you.
 Click on Create my
account
It is a good idea to always read the Terms of Service before you sign up

6. Registering Your Account
By following people that have the same interests as you, you
can create a powerful learning network on the fly.

7. Registering Your Account
 See who of your friends are already using twitter

8. Confirming Your Account
 Check your e-mail inbox
for an e-mail from Twitter.
 Click on the confirmation
link contained in the e-
You will still be
mail. able to use
 You will now be able to Twitter even if
receive direct messages you have not
directly to your e-mail confirmed
inbox. your e-mail.
Activating your e-mail will give you access to many other
services on twitter

9. Adjusting Account Settings
Make sure that you adjust
your basic settings...
 Click on Settings  Account
 Your real name, username
and e-mail will be filled in
already
 Change your time zone
Choose if you want others
to see your location (you
will then be able to locate
others near you)
 You can choose to protect
your updates, but then you
also choose to close
yourself to new learning
mentors....

10. Your Profile/Bio
Not updating your Profile
settings is like leaving your
house without putting clothes
on......
 Click on Settings  Profile
 Upload a photo of
yourself
 You can adjust your
name. Be real!
 Where are you based?
 Insert your web address
or blog
 Say something about
yourself that will give
potential learning
partners a sense of what
you do/are interested in
Make sure that your Bio is professional and take your privacy into account.

11. NOW YOU’RE READY TO TWEET!!!

12. Do’s and Don’ts of Tweeting
Dos Don’ts
 DO:  DON’T:
 Use good language  Use ALL CAPS (it is
 Share good learning screaming)
resources  Tweet in an “altered state”
 Ask questions and give  Forget to credit those tweets
answers/opinions that you are passing on (re-
 Think before you tweet tweeting- RT)
 Add value to your
network………
Remember that your tweets are
very public

13. Reading Tweets
Tweets are in reverse
chronological order,
according to time,
with the newest at the
top.
 If you click on Home (top right) and Timeline, you will see
all the tweets of the people you are following.
 If you want to reply to or retweet a tweet hover your
curser over a tweet to see the Reply or Retweet options or
add @theotherpersonsusername to your tweet.
 To read anybody’s tweets, click on their twitter name or
picture eg www.twitter.com/heyjudeonline and read on the
pane to the right. (or click the arrow to the right)
If you want to find a specific tweet again you can mark it as a favourite,
using the star (Favourite) option below the tweet.

14. Twitter Vocabulary
 Tweet: an individual post
 RT (Retweet): retelling someone else’s post
 @username: Open message to a specific person
 Message: Direct message to a specific person
 #hashtag: Use hashtags to group and track discussions (conference
call, chat, group information etc.)

15. Benefits of Twitter in the Classroom
 Direct line of communication to our students (they already use it
for personal use, why not make it educational?)
 Direct line of communication to parents and other stakeholders in
the community
 Gets students excited about telling others what they have learned.
 Can be used as a reflective, assessment, and learning tool

16. What Do I Say?
 Make it relevant
 Make it count (you only have 140 characters)
 Ask questions (You can get responses from students and
your network of followers)
 Be yourself

17. Twitter in the Classroom
 Classes: can continue class discussion after class is over
 Community: create a community feel through linked tweets via
hashtags
 Instant Feedback: get responses to recent discussions/lectures, pose
questions to build upon the next lesson
 Public Notepad: share inspirations, reading, thoughts, ideas, etc.
 Technology: can be accessed through desktops, laptops,
iPhones/iPods, any SmartPhone or Internet-enabled device
 Messages: Can be used as a personal message system. You don’t have
to give your phone number out to make yourself available to students
and parents!

18. Twitter Resources
TweetDeck Bit.Ly Twitter Search
 www.tweetdeck.com
 www.bit.ly http://Search.twitter.
 Desktop application
to run and manage
com
 Shorten website
followers, tweets, links into only 19
searches, favorites, Shorten website links
characters; leaves
etc. into only 19
more characters for
characters; leaves
your tweets
more characters for
your tweets

19. Managing a TweetChat
 This is a great way to host a discussion, study and review for a test,
etc…Students don’t have to have a twitter account to read the
feeds!!! They can respond if they have an account!
 Go to http://www.tweetchat.com
 Sign in with your twitter account
 Add the hashtag for your chat to the top.
 Start chatting away!

20. TwitPics
 Upload and share pics to your twitter followers
 http://twitpic.com/

21. TwitVid
 Upload and share videos to your Twitter followers!
 http://www.twitvid.com

22. Make It Happen!!

23.  Put a shout out to your Twitter This makes learning based on up-to-
network for them to tell you date information and real people
(and your students) (with a real story behind it!)
something.
 This could be:
 Location (e.g. for Geography)
 Temperature (e.g. for
Science)
 An interesting historical fact
 Their opinion about
something
 Anything, really!

24.  First...Choose your theme Then...students follow via
twitterfall,choose the best ones and
 Genre - Fairy Tale, Sports edit them into a coherent story
Story, Adventure etc.
Great for editing skills, story structure
 Give it a standard story etc.
opener and tweet this to your Where will your network take the
network story?
 Ask network to continue the
http://www.twitterfall.com
story in tweets, collaborating
with the previous tweets and
following them via
www.twitterfall.com or a
#tag

25.  Set up a new Twitter account for your class - you will possibly want to
'protect' your updates. Invite parents to 'follow' you, and they can
see what the class are up to from any computer (home, work,
internet cafe...) at any time of the day or night. They might even
tweet back now and again!

26.  Great for comparing the differences in views regarding a topic of
choice that relates to what’s going on in your class.
 http://twtpoll.com

27.  Student stuck trying to find a new or
interesting word? Is the student's
writing clique or lacking descriptive
language? Use twitter to send out a
word and have your network give the
students synonym and other
meanings. Or have classrooms
connect during writing workshops.
 Then have the students help each
other create Wordle clouds of a word
and the words that are synonyms,
antonyms, and examples to foster
stronger and more descriptive
writing. The Wordle clouds become
help posters during writing for the rest
of the year.
 Go to http://www.wordle.com to get
started making yours!

28. There are loads of experts on
Twitter these days, and some are
willing to talk to the kids. Find an
author, a scientist, a local
historian...
NASA has many twitter
streams, as do NASA Fellows
(teachers who work on
NASA projects.) They're
Twitter-friendly!

29.  While they work on assignments,
stimulate your students to tweet It's useful to the students: they
and reply about: become aware of their own
learning process + it's a way of
 stuff they learn collaborative learning.
 difficulties they face
 tips they want to share
 great resources they find It's useful to the teacher: each
students learning process
 In this way, Twitter replaces the becomes visible and can be
traditional exit slips and other evaluated.
formative assessments.

30.  Have students find websites, pictures, or other online documents that
fit a certain criteria related to your subject area.
 For example, if you are studying China, you could have students locate a
map of China before PRC was formed or a narrative account of the
Tiananmen Square incident.
 Students then post links to Twitter, and once a resource has been
posted, it can not be posted by another student/group.
 This could be used in conjunction with teaching research skills &
information literacy and/or as a method for collecting resources.

31.  You can directly share YouTube videos that are relevant to what you
are teaching directly with your twitter followers.
 To use this meaningfully with students, you could post two or three
videos related to what you are teaching, have students go home or
in their spare time watch the videos and retweet them with a
summary (140 characters or less) of what they learned.
 This works great for those gifted kids in the regular classroom. Let them
have access to the computer, iPad, iPod, or their own device when they
finish early and watch the videos and retweet for bonus points.
 You could also have them find some videos or sites to share. I am going to
do this using the two iPads I have and let students manage the class
twitter account @mcmsscience that I set up. (under my supervision)

32. Contact Me
 Twitter: @mcmsscience and @ellabowling
 Ella.bowling@mason.kyschools.us
 606-782-0192 (cell) (feel free to text or call with questions!)