What
I Learned from Twitter
Who
would have thought that when Twitter started several years ago, it would evolve into what it is today. I never used Twitter until last year. I tend to resist using new technology until I
have no choice but to embrace it! Once I
get over the fear of trying out a new piece of software and or technology, I
usually end up loving it and can’t imagine why I did not start using it
earlier. Twitter was one of those things,
I should have been tweeting! One thing I
did decide, I would only be using it for professional purposes. What I found was a plethora of information
from other professionals in higher education.
You are tweeting with people you do not know but are willing to share
ideas, best practices and share professional wisdom and advice with you. The resources that you can tap into from
others across the country are amazing. Using
Twitter as a method of professional development is beneficial to educators and their
students. The objective of Twitter is to
get enough people to follow you and reply to tweets. If you
are using this as a teaching method for a lesson with your students the outcome/purpose
of Twitter is going to be different. There will be safety concerns and privacy of information
to be aware of with students. I am using
it for professional development purposes so my search is only for people in higher
education with an academic background.
Below
are two good short (2.5 minutes) video on “how to get more people to
follow you” and “how to get more leads on Twitter”. These are good if you are getting started and
want more followers to your account. I
found them helpful to get the Twitter process started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wwJrYlcwTHI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wwJrYlcwTHI
I feel that I'm still torn on Twitter in a classroom, but these videos are useful and great finds for those who do make the plunge! Nice discovery!
ReplyDeleteI like the video on how to get more people to follow you. Sometimes it feels like, why bother, no one's reading what I say!
ReplyDeleteIf you like the idea of using Twitter to get information out to students and parents, you may want to check out my post about Celly. Celly is like Twitter, only it allows you to create groups, or "cells." Instead of following you, people follow one cell, so you can have parents follow a parent cell, students follow one student cell or even break cells up by class, etc. it's almost like having multipleTwitter handles except it's all from one account so it's very manageable. That way if you are looking to send a message to students only or parents only, your message will only go to its intended audience. Check out my post about it :)
http://madamekochanowicz.blogspot.com/2013/03/text-messaging-students.html
I think these videos are a great addition to this blog post! I admire your focus in immediately identifying exactly how you want to use this tool. I think it will help you really zero in on the information that you actually want.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Cristin's remark about feeling discouraged by a lack of followers I will add my own two cents: I really think the best and simplest way to get more followers is to tweet consistently about things you are passionate about. This way you gain not just followers, but followers with similar interests - and those are great followers to have, because they are likely to stick around AND interact with you! :)