All Technology!

Twitter

Have you started using Twitter? It is one of the greatest tools out there for collaborating with educators, growing as a learner and lead to new resources. So first things first, go create an account!

Now how does it work? Here are some basic definitions:

• Tweet- a tweet is a message. It can only contain 140 characters so be succinct. Get to the heart of your thinking! Click the box with a feather to start composing your messages.
• @- this goes at the beginning of your username. Mine is @Lisa_teacher
• # - this is the key. It allows you to connect to others who are thinking about the same topic. For example, I went to a conference at Teachers College and used the hashtag #TCRWP That allowed all tweeps to have a conversation in the back channel and share their learning.
• Tweeps - people on twitter
• Back channel - A real time on line conversation
• Direct messages - a DM allows you to send a message privately to another person. You can do this through the messages inbox.
• URL shortener- You can bit.ly to shorten a URL so you can add it to your tweet.
• PLN- Personal/ Professional Learning Network. It's a collection of people you learn from and collaborate with.

So that's some basics. Here's a tweet I sent:
"My attempt at a #companionbook for #theoneandonlyIvan for @teachkate 's class Nervous.... http://bit.ly/IvanCompBook "

You can see I added two hashtags so I can find others having the same discussion and I added a @username so I could be sure my instructor got the message. The URL was too long so I used bit.ly to shorten it.

Important tool for educators

Grow your PLN! So there are chats that happen on the Internet. Here are some you could try.

Chat for California educators  #caedchat

Sundays

8 pm PT

Chat for educators teaching 4th grade #4thchat
Mondays
8pm ET/5pm PT/7pm CT

Chat for educators teaching social studies #sschat
Mondays
7pm ET/4pm PT/6pm CT

Chat for ELL educators #ellchat
Mondays
9pm ET/6pm PT

Kindergarten Chat #kinderchat
Mondays
9pm ET/6pm PT

General education chat #edchat
Tuesdays
12 noon ET/ 9am PT
7pm ET/4pm PT

Chat for science educators #scichat
Tuesdays
9pm ET/6pm PT

Chat for educational technology  #edtechchat
Wednesdays
8 pm ET/5 pm PT

Chat for people interested in workshop and TCRWP #TCRWP

Wednesdays
7:30 pm ET/4:30 pm PT

Chat for people interested in education #satchat

Saturdays
7:30 am ET/4:30 am PT

Chats allow you to learn and grow your PLN.  They last an hour.  Just go to that hashtag at the right time and introduce yourself.  You never know who you'll meet!  Go out and try it!