Twitter

**Twitter** Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that uses instant messaging, SMS (text) or a web interface. Commuincate with other educators around the globe via short updates of no more that 140 characters. Twitter is one of the best ways to grow your personal learning network.

How to Join the Twitter Conversation
You can lurk on Twitter without signing up, but to post your own updates and choose whose news you want to follow, you need to set up a free account.
 * 1) Get started at the Twitter home page. To join, you need to provide an email address and choose a user name and a password.
 * 2) Once you are signed in, click on Settings. Create a profile other users will see when they click on your name. Add a photo or another image if you like.
 * 3) Add your own updates. Use the text box at the top of the screen to answer the question "What are you doing?" Answer in no more than 140 characters. Your most recent update will appear at the top of your page.
 * 4) Choose some people to follow. Identify and follow professionals in your profession by reading their “tweets”.Use the search field at the top of the page to search by name or location. Or click on Find and Follow to look for people by email address. To add a person you want to follow, click on that person's name. Then click the Follow button that appears under his or her image. You will receive automatic updates from all the people you follow. (They get to decide whether they want to follow you.)

If you're a Twitter user looking to expand your network the following are eight ways to find other teachers on Twitter. (from Free Technology for Teachers blog, Richard Byrne) 1. Twitter 4 Teacherswiki. The Twitter 4 Teachers PB Wiki was started by ed tech specialist Gina Hartman. This wiki is organized content teaching area so that visitors can connect with Twitter users who teach the same subject(s). 2. Educators on Twitter is a Google Docs Spreadsheet started by Liz B. Davis. The list is constantly growing as new additions are added almost daily. 3. Twitter for Teachers is a wiki started by Rodd Lucier with the purpose of educating teachers about the use of Twitter as an educational tool and as a professional development tool. You may want to check out who the contributors to the wiki are and follow them. Rodd has also produced a great video demonstrating how to use Twitter, Delicious, and Google Reader to find more Twitter users of interest to you. 4. Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has compiled a list of nearly 800 educators on Twitter. Each entry is accompanied by a short summary about the Twitter user. 5. Twitter search. Located at the bottom of the Twitter page is a search link. Try searching for key words commonly used in educational technology. Then follow the Twitter users who are writing messages containing those key terms. 6. Look at who others follow and who others send "@" messages to. One of the ways that I've built up my network is to look at who the "popular" people follow and follow them. If someone you currently follow sends an "@" reply that appears in your Twitter stream, check out who that "@" message was sent to. Chances are good that the recipient of that message is also interested in the same topics you're interested in. 7. Start engaging conversations. There are a couple of ways to do this, you start a conversation around a resource that you've discovered. Another way to start a conversation is to pose a question or problem that you would like help solving. People are generally willing to offer feedback. If someone sends you an "@" message try to acknowledge it (you may not always be able to do this because of time lapse) people seem to appreciate acknowledgement. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">8. We Followranks every Twitter user in each directory by the number of followers that they have. For example, in the education directory I'm currently ranked 28th with 1,216 followers and Kevin Jarrett is ranked 14th with 2071 followers. By the way, if you're not following Kevin, you should be. He shares a lot of great thoughts about elementary education and technology in the elementary classroom. As it is a user generated directory, there may be some people in the directory that aren't actually academic educators, but have chosen to use that hashtag anyway.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Top Twitter Hashtags for Teachers** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hashtags are a great way of searching for tweets in a specific category or discussion – search for #edchat and you will come up with a huge stream of tweets which have been tagged as interesting to anyone wanting to read about or discuss education. By using hashtags, you can tag your own tweet to make sure you are talking to an interested audience that extends beyond your followers. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**General Education Hashtags** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Technology** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Subject Specific** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Specific Areas / Roles**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#edchat – hashtag if you are interested in tweeting with educators across the world
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#lrnchat – discussions related to learning
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**#TT –** Teacher Tuesday, recognize other educators
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#FF - Follow Friday, suggest others to follow
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**#kinderchat –** hashtag for discussing kindergarten aged children
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**#ClavEd –** educational hashtag for French Speakers, Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. EST
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#GlobalEd – Education with a global focus
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#edtech – a very wide range of tweets relating to the use of technology in education. This is a great hashtag to follow and tends to be a lot more widely used than the more niche tags. Though they may be worth following if you have a specific interest in that area
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#elearning – eLearning (funnily enough!)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#mlearning – the use of mobile technologies in education, also **#mobilelearning** though this is less used
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**#edapp** – educational apps
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**#gbl** - games based learning
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**#slide2learn –** iDevices and learning
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#**vitalcpd** – effective use of technology in the classroom
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#biology - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tweets related to biology; also a list of top biology twitter users for you to follow
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#scichat - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tweets related to teaching science
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#math - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">related to teaching math; also a list of top math twitter users
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#engchat - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">chat for English teachers to talk about various issues
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#musedchat - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">weekly chat about music education, Mondays at 8:00 p.m. EST
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#artsed - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">coversations about arts education; Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. EST
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#physed - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tweets related to physical education
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#history - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tweets from those interested in history
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#sschat - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tweets realted to social studies
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#library - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">tweets related to library/media
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#litchat - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">for book lovers
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#titletalk - **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">disussion on various books/authors
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#gtchat – for tweets related to gifted and talented education
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#ptchat - for parents & teachers to discuss education topics
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#esl – English as a second language, this seemed to have more relevant tweets than #EFL when I checked it
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**#Bullying** – bullying resources
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#cpchat – connected principals
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#ntchat - new teachers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#spedchat – special educational needs, Tuesdays at 8:30 EST
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">#TLChat - is the hashtag for Teacher Librarians’ discussions/resources


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Link to Cybrary Man's Comprehensive List of Ed Hashtags **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Definition of Twitter Hashtags (look up online) **