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Twitter Basics Twitter is a micro- ogging at orm used question: Whats happening? mi ions wor dwide. The gi e ou 140 characters to answer the

Wh do ou need Twitter? As educators we are continua seeking out know edge and new in ormation in order to etter our teaching. The hrase Persona Learning Network (PLN or short) re ers to the grou o eo e that he guide and sha e our own earning. Current our PLN ro a consists o the eo e ou work c ose with on a dai asis. Imagine ex anding our PLN a hundred or more eo e rom around the g o e. Twitter can make that ha en. Twitter has quick ecome a unique and im ortant wa or educators to connect co a orate and earn. Teachers o ow each others osts ask each other questions share ideas ost inks and more. Another ossi e use is as a communication too with students and arents. Twitter is we suited or quick short u dates a out c assroom e ents due date reminders and more. To get started ou need a Twitter account. Go to www.twitter.com and c ick Sign U Now. A ou need to ro ide is our name and emai address. You choose a username and a assword. Your twitter ro i e can now e ound at www.twitter.com/ ourusername . Lets take a ook at the to ten twitter asics: 1. Your home page

This is what ou see u on ogging into Twitter. From here ou can read the osts (a.k.a. tweets) o the eo e ou o ow ost a tweet o our own in the status u date ox check to see who is o owing ou search and more.

2. Your profile

Looks a ot ike our Home Page exce t it shows on tweets ou e sent. Its what eo e see when the c ick on our username. It has a unique URL: www.twitter.com/ ourusername . For exam e: www.twitter.com/engaginged . A so it shows some thum nai s o the eo e ou o ow. Again ou can a so iew ( c icking on the num ers) the eo e o owing and eing o owed.

3. Following On our home age ou see the tweets o eo e ou o ow. On the eo e that o ow ou see our tweets on their home age. The est wa to get eo e to o ow ou is to o ow them! I ou ind a user oud ike to o ow go to their ro i e and c ick Fo ow. Their tweets wi now a ear on our home age.

Other notes on o owing *Ha ing trou e disco ering eo e to o ow? Go to the ro i e o a tweeter ou res ect/enjo . C ick on the num er o eo e the themse es are o owing. Find eo e to o ow rom the ist. You can do the same thing with eo e that are o owing them.

*Not ha with someone oure o owing? You can a wa s un- o ow c icking on the ist o eo e oure o owing on our home age or ro i e then choose un- o ow rom the dro down menu eside their name. Or going to their ro i e and doing the same thing. *One o the est aces to ind educators to o ow is htt ://twitter4teachers. works.com . This is a wiki age organized categor (e ementar teachers science teachers etc.). It contains inks to hundreds o teachers and administrators who use twitter.

See our list of top tweeters at the end of this handout with some suggestions on whom to follow.

4. @replies and @mentions An @re is Twitter-s eak or a re to someones tweet. I ou want to re to what someone tweets ho er our mouse o er their tweet. It turn ue. Sim c ick Re :

This wi automatica ersons username:

generate a o -u window with tweet that egins with the @ s m o and the

Notes on @replies and @mentions:

*You can a so manua re to a user sim t ing a tweet with that egins with @ and their username. In act ou shou d a so use this technique whene er ou mention another Twitter user in a tweet. For exam e: I ho e @The_Rea _Shaq has a great game tonight! *@re ies are PUBLIC. The wi a ear on our ro i e age and the wi show u in the eed o the erson ou mentioned AND the eed o an one who follows both you and that user. *Twitter a ows ou to iew a the tweets that mention ou username. Just c ick @mentions on our home age and ou see a ist o e er tweet that inc udes our username in an wa :

5. Favorites O ten mem ers o our PLN wi share inks to use u sites. Or ou might see a tweet that ou ike or want to remem er. Twitter o ers ou the o tion o marking a orite tweets. To do so ho er o er the tweet and c ick the STAR or the word Fa orite:

To iew our Fa orites c ick the Fa orites ink in the side ar o our ro i e or home age:

6. Direct Messages A Direct Message or DM is just that a message sent direct to another Twitter user. But this user must be someone that is following you. You can send DMs direct rom the ersons Twitter ro i e. Just c ick the en e o e:

You can a so send a direct message

entering d + username + message in our status u date ox.

7. Retweeting I ou see RT at the eginning o a tweet or i ou see a tweet with this:

that means its a retweet. A retweet is a tweet that someone e se osted that someone saw and ound use u or a ua e. (Or hi arious ike the one a o e). The retweeted it to share it with their o owers otentia increasing the num er o eo e who wi see the origina tweet.

I ou see a tweet ou ike or one that has a use u ink retweet it to share it with our PLN. There are two wa s to do this: 1. Just co and aste the tweet into our status u date ox. Be sure to ut RT and the ersons username ( receded the @ s m o ) at the eginning o the retweet. 2. Ho er o er the tweet and c ick Retweet.

8. URL shortening One o the most use u things to do within our PLN is share inks. Howe er some URLs are so ong that the use u much o our 140 characters. Se era we sites o er ou the a i it to shorten URLs. Sim aste in the origina co shortened ersion and aste it into our tweet. Two o u ar URL Shorteners are htt ://tin ur .com htt ://goo.g and htt :// it. .

9. Hashtags A hashtag is used to mark ke words or categories in a tweet. For exam e i ou ost an educationa techno og -re ated tweet ou cou d add the hashtag #edtech. To add a hashtag to our tweet e sure ou recede it with the # s m o . Hashtags make it easier or other users to ind our tweets ia search.

Notes on hashtags: *Hashtags can a ear an where in a tweet.

*C icking on the hashtag in someones tweet wi show ou a the tweets that ha e een tagged in the same wa .

10. HootSuite and TweetDeck I ou rea get into Twitter ou might want to consider these two third- art a ications. The each automatica u date ha e eas to use inter aces and ui t-in URL shortening. In addition each a ows

ou to tweet rom mu ti e Twitter accounts. www.hootsuite.com is we - ased and www.tweetdeck.com requires ou to down oad and insta a rogram.

The @engaginged To 50 educators to o ow on twitter (in no articu ar order): @engaginged @ arr er azzo @she terre @ange a_maiers @w r er @wi rich45 @ _hi t @aunt tech @ ammoran @eduto ia @coo catteacher @inno ati eedu @rm rne @ ake ock @dwar ick @teach42 @gcouros @ ad 7 @tjarrett @ angwitches @mc eod @thenerd teacher @teachingwithsou @ ugusin @teach a er ess @NMHS_Princi a @21st rinci a @mrwejr @mrse io og @shannonmmi er @stum teacher @techsa ed @we 20c assroom @c rar man1 @ewanmcintosh @ hs rinci a @co one @johnts encer @tech earning @ igthink @jdthomas7 @tomwhit @m teach @k e ace @e emenous @con rin @ideagu 42 @gar stager @m teach @sim ek12

For more tutoria s and handouts

ease isit www.EngagingEducators.com .