Internet Technologies & Hearing Loss –

Introduction to TwitterHeidi Walsh

Over the next few weeks, we will look at an Internet Technology per week including: Forums 14-03-2011 Chatrooms 21-03-2011 Blogs 28-03-2011 Facebook 04-04-2011 Twitter Skype

And how these technologies can support people with hearing loss

What is Twitter? Is a micro-blogging service Huh? It is a way for people to communicate with

other people by sending short messages known as tweets

Breaks down barriers due to hearing loss as it is text-based not verbal

Twitter started out as a way to share what you are doing with other people

A bit like when you phone up a friend and one of the first questions you ask is ‘what are you doing?’

It was designed as a modern way of making people feel connected or in touch with others

Can be private or open (viewable by anyone)

At a basic level ….You can share Comments with your friends – regardless of

where they are in the world Photos – using an extra service such as

yfrog.com Videos – using an extra service such as

twidvid.com Links to things on the Internet Much more …

Since then it has been used: By celebrities to say what they are doing! By people to campaign / to highlight issues /

report events (Eqypt, Syria, etc) – this is known as citizen journalism

To send a message to a group of people at one time – eg cancelling an event

By businesses to inform about new products etc To inform To educate To run discussions – a Twitter chat

Uses for deaf people Feel in touch with friends and family be

knowing what people are doing Follow news / keep up-to-date on latest

events Follow hobbies and share interests Find out about new developments, e.g.

Tinnitus news - British Tinnitus Association Campaigning for deaf people - RNID

How it works To send a tweet you need a free Twitter

account You send a tweet (140 characters max) Your tweet is sent to the people following

you – your followers And/or can be read by anyone else via the

Internet (unless you make your tweets private

You can follow other people’s tweets Tweets can be received and read:

Online On your mobile phone By email

You can use special websites and programmes to collect and organise tweets

Tweet – when you send a message Twitter feed – all your tweets Retweet (RT) – when you forward

someone else’s tweet Retweeting passes information on very quickly

Person A sends tweet to network 1

Person B is a member of both network 1 &

network 2 AND sends retweet to network 2

Direct message (DM) – a private tweet sent to one person

@replies – message addressed to a specific Twitter user but can be read by anyone following you

# hashtags – a way of marking tweets so that they can be searched

To find information/people Use the search box on Twitter:

Examples of Twitter feeds

BBC News

Following a story / interest using a #hashtag

#hashtag in search box

Save search for future

British Tinnitus Association

RNID

Useful extras

Twournal.com Collates all your tweets into one place as a

printable book

Tweetdeck.com Way of collecting and organising tweets on

various devices

Tweetchat.com Way of following and participating in Twitter

chats (discussions)

Feedly.com Way of collating and organising tweets into

an online ‘newspaper’

Paper.li Way of collating tweets and Facebook

posts into a daily online newspaper