Enhance Your Professional Learning with Twitter

Carol Skyring

Webinar 12 March 2014

Tweet your thoughts and learnings

http://twubs.com/cslearn

#cslearn

Noise alert!

Where are you?

Type in the question box

About you….

1. Twitter is for the birds! 2. I did tweet once – now where is my account?3. I’ve dabbled with Twitter.4. I tweet therefore I am.

More about you…

1. My PLN is very important to me.2. I have a PLN but I don’t do much with it.3. I need a PLN.4. I’d have a PLN if I knew what it was!

Agenda

• How Twitter is being used by educators to support their professional learning.

• How you can set up your own professional learning network (PLN) with Twitter.

• Practical strategies for building your network.• Tips on how to use Twitter effectively.

In the question box, list all of the ways in which you undertake professional learning.

What’s a PLN?

A group of people who can guide your learning, point you to learning opportunities, answer your questions, and give you the benefit of their own knowledge and experience. (Tobin, 1998)

Tobin, D. R. (1998). Building your personal learning network. Retrieved from http://www.tobincls.com/learningnetwork.htm

Your PLN is:

•Collection of people who contribute to your learning

•Connected virtually

•A global network

•Available anytime, anywhere

• Social

•Collaborativehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/courosa/344832591/

Value of a PLN

• Stay current• Continuous learning• Answers/help/

resources/advice when you need it

The aim is to find & make connections

PLN tools

http://twtpoll.com/learningflow2

Top 10 reasons to use Twitter*• Access timely information

• Make diverse and global connections

• Access valuable resources, advice and support

• Access key learnings from conferences, workshops or seminars without having to attend

• Engage in conversations and discussions

• Access experts

• Keep up with current trends

• Extend professional networks beyond their local area

• Reciprocity

• Learning*From my doctoral research

Top 10 Professional Learning Activities on Twitter*

•Sharing or on-sharing a resource eg website, book, video

•Following a link tweeted by someone in their network

•Reading activity updates of others in their network

•Saving a resource tweeted by someone in their network

•Acting on something they have read in a tweet

•Engaging in a conversation with someone in their network

•Going back to a saved resource tweeted by someone

•Using hashtags (#) to share information on a specific topic or from a conference, workshop or seminar

•Searching for content

•Asking for a resource on a specific topic*From my doctoral research

Getting started:

• Fill out your profile and add a link to your website.

• Add a photo or logo before you go live – people want to know who you are.

• Choose some keywords that describe you (professionally) and put them in your profile –> a higher ranking in search.

Let’s look at some profiles

• Carol• CILC

What to tweet

Be generous and share resources and ideas you find.

What to tweet

Share a little personal information in your tweets so people see your human side.

What to tweetComment on other’s tweets and retweet (RT) what others have posted (with acknowledgement).

What to tweet

Ask questions – people love to respond.

Building your community

• Don’t follow anyone until you’ve posted a few interesting tweets.

• Search Twitter for terms of interest.• Find interesting people – see who they follow.• Twitter will make suggestions.

Who should you follow?

• Colleagues• Peers• Experts• Professional associations• Inspirational people

Its not what you use – it’s how you use it!

• Don’t just ‘consume’ – contribute

• Do acknowledge others• Do share freely• Don’t share links you

haven’t checked yourself• Don’t spam people• Do learn the language

Supercharge your PLN

• Check out some hashtags eg #edtech• Join a live hashtag session eg #edchat• Follow a conference hashtag eg #siteconf

Managing information

• Organise your followers into lists• Use a dashboard eg Hootsuite• Save and tag links in Diigo or Delicious

Some final Twitter tips

• Twitter is public – NEVER forget that!• Know the lingo:• DM - direct message for 1-to-1 conversations• RT - retweet (MT= modified retweet)• @someone – will appear in their timeline

• You don’t have to read every tweet made by people you follow.

• You don’t have to reply to every @you tweet.• Get mobile with twitter apps

What will you do next?

Type into the question box

Contacthttp://carolskyring.com

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