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This workshop was presented at Ulearn 2010, in Christchurch, New Zealand on October 7th.
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Teaching and Learning with
Steve WheelerUniversity of Plymouth, UK
@timbuckteeth
Microblogs and Social Networks
• Allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them
• Examples include: Plurk, Jaiku and Twitter• Facebook, Myspace, etc. have microblogging
features known as ‘status updates’.• What are you doing?• What’s happening?
Is it really like this...?
140RT and DM #ulearn10@timbuckteeth
Go Global
Activity: Set up your Twitter account
• Go to www.twitter.com• Create an account• Choose a user name• Choose an avatar (picture to represent you)• Start to ‘follow’ other Twitter users
Some facts about
• Twitter takes time...– to build up a network– to develop your own Twitter style– to appreciate its full scope
• It’s all about the conversation• Large number of associated tools (Mashups)• Twitter is growing fast...
Some views on Twitter...
Why Twitter?
Unique worldwide users over 100 million (June 2010)
What to Tweet about?
What to Tweet about?
• Conversation is the new currency• Twitter is an amplifier• Tweets can ‘go viral’ if enough RTs• DMs are private conversations• Learn a lot from other people’s tweets
More Twitter views...
Let’s take a brief tour of Twitter...
navigation
navigation
user iconuser info
navigation
user iconuser info
activities
following
navigation
user iconuser info
activities
followingretweet
hashtag
hyperlink
update box
you choose a background
public timeline
mentions
DMs
trending
Twitter relationships...
More on relationships...
Activity: Disadvantages?• Spend a few moments discussing with
someone in your group: What do you think the disadvantages and barriers would be to using Twitter in an educational context?
The downside?
• Time consuming• Slow to start• Noise to signal ratio• Distracting• Security issues?• Ban in some schools• Spam followers!
Twitter culture – RTs and the rest...
5 Twitter stages• Denial: I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would
anyone care what other people are doing right now?• Presence: OK, I don’t get why people love it, but I
guess I could at least create an account• Dumping: I’m on Twitter and using it for links to my
blog posts and pointing people to useful websites• Conversing: I don’t always post useful stuff, but I use
Twitter to have useful 1-1 conversations• Microblogging: I’m using Twitter to publish useful
information that people read, and I have authentic 1-1 conversations.
(Adapted from Minxuan Lee)
Following and followers
Either
Carefully select the people you want to follow based on their interests/background
or
Go on follow recommendations from people you trust
(See TweepML.org)
or
Follow the same people your friends are following
Activity: Explore some additional tools
• Tweetdeck (dashboard)• Twitpic, Tweetphoto• Twitterpoll• Twitterfall• Mr Tweet• Twitlonger, Woofer• TweepML
Twitter is here to stay.....
Some theory...
• Reflection• Amplification• Collaboration and sharing• Interaction and Conversation• Knowledge generation
How can Twitter be used...?
Teaching with Twitter
• Discuss – how could you use Twitter ...– in your own teaching?– To extend your own PLN?– To create a community of practice?
Activity: Your turn
• What are your ideas for using Twitter in your own classroom?
Twittering at Conferences
• Try twittering at this conference• Hashtag is: #ulearn10• Be concise• Report on what you think will be
interesting to other people• Reply to others• Send useful URLs
Tweet you later!
