Twitter

A Day in the Life of a Teacher

Wednesday morning schedule:

4:55                        Get out of bed. Kind of hard today. As last night’s tweet shows, I was up late helping my son use Animoto to create an All About Me video

5:10 to 5:30            Run on the tread mill (only time for 20-25 minutes most mornings lately)

6:00                         Out the door

6:30                         Drop off husband at work

6:40                         At work and ready to start the day

6:40-7:30                 Double check day plan, catch up on e-class discussions, check email, read a few articles

7:30                        Check Twitter

I’m sitting at my desk while the morning custodian is cleaning the room. He and I are the only ones in the school for probably at least another half hour. We exchange pleasantries, then he goes on to sweep and mop while I check my Twitter account for anything new in the educational world. Today, I come across the following tweet:

langwitches    6th gr.stdents learning &formulating own opinions abt ethics of animal dissection in schools. Help by adding ur thoughts http://bit.ly/9x0rXa

Interesting. Teaching grade four, dissection isn’t something I’ve really thought much about since my own experiences in grade eleven. So I clicked on the link and explored. What I found was impressive but shocking. A middle school is questioning the continued value of dissection in a world newly equipped with virtual dissection programs. Some of the facts shock me:

• (some animals) are vivisected (this means that they have a procedure done to them while they are alive.)
• Undercover investigations of biological supply companies found nightmarish acts of animal cruelty including the drowning of rabbits and embalming of cats while they were still alive

The students have done their homework and I’m at least rethinking my years on the pro-side of the dissection argument.

Clicking on the link provided by the National Geographic tweet, I find myself looking at the brilliantly coloured tombstones in the cemetery in Chichicastenango, Guatemala.

Mental note: must show this to my class. We’ve been looking at landmarks as part of our geography unit and this cemetery will be a sharp contrast to the gray-stone filled cemetery down the street.

After researching Facebook and thinking about privacy, Courosa’s tweet catches my eye:

courosa    RT @sjciske: Watch your tweets! Are Canadian Police Getting More Access to Your Internet Data? [TNW Canada] http://bit.ly/cwTMdE

I try to bring up the link, but the school computer isn’t letting me.

A quick glance at the Target tweet advising that Black Friday is approaching, then I have to log off. It is after 8 now and a co-worker is coming through the door to talk to me. Then I have to talk to the librarian and figure out why the newly donated telescope has magically appeared in my room. Another day is about to begin.

12:45

The hall is abuzz with the excited chatter of students returning to classes, thrilled to have had play time on a day that has transitioned so quickly from blustery rain to beautiful sun. The trees are still dancing, leaves shimmering in the wind, and the crystal clear blue sky almost takes my mind off of the mess in the class. Art materials clutter desks, waiting for students to come back. The paintings will have to wait until the students return from the library.

My new schedule has the added benefit of opening up time for reflection and professional development during the day. I photocopy in the mornings, missing the jam of people usually clogging our tiny photocopier room during recess and lunch. Now I can use my preps and breaks for other things.

So, I go back to Twitter and am greeted with

shareski    I wonder how my slow cook meatballs are doing?

 and I think, “whoops! I forgot to check the popcorn chicken situation before leaving for work this morning. Hope there’s enough for dinner.” This was posted only 20 seconds before from via Tweetdeck, which reminds me that I had planned to check out taking Twitter mobile.

Pushing past this tweet, I’m greeted by a new National Geographic post:

NatGeoSociety    The Milky Way Is Blowing Bubbles: http://on.natgeo.com/dhm978 #space #mystery #science

Having spent the morning in the computer lab with my students, working on our Spaceology Inquiry projects, I’m pretty stoked to open this amazing picture

A post from Global News BC is asking for a ‘person in their sixties who is still working with no plans to retire at 65’ while Mashable has a link to a video interview with Mark Zuckerburg, founder of Facebook and the History channel post is reminding me to check out the newest ‘this day in history’ video. So many places I could take my research, and only 15 minutes left until the students come back. I decide to pull myself away from the tweets from people I’m following and turn to the task at hand. I had stumbled across the group edchat last time I was on Twitter and I wanted to take a peek at what was going on. I’m rewarded with the tweet:

birklearns    50 Ideas for Project Based Learning --neat ways to engage learners! http://bit.ly/c9KH1M #edchat #cpchat #bcpvpa #edreform

So I click on the link and find a list of helpful suggestions on how to use inquiry in the classroom. I only have time for a cursory scan before I’m off to pick up my students. I’ll have to revisit the site later.

A busy afternoon ensues. Three o’clock arrives and parents are waiting outside my door to talk to me. I have a meeting with one of my own son’s teachers scheduled for 3:30. No time for Twitter after school. No problem. There’s always tomorrow.

My Initial Experiences with Twitter

               

I have to admit to being underwhelmed by the idea of researching and using Twitter. Like many, I didn’t know much about it. I somehow had gotten the impression that Twitter was like Facebook and that Facebook’s popularity would somehow eventually make Twitter obsolete, so why bother using it. The only person I ever knew that used Twitter was, ironically, my 70ish year old Grandfather. He came to town for a visit a year ago and the first thing he did was put a Twitter icon on my Dad’s computer. As my Dad complained later, he never asked if he could do this nor did he ever explain why he used Twitter and it never occurred to me to ask.

                In reading to find out more on the subject of Twitter, I encountered Brett Young's initial views on the subject:

Are you kidding? Why on earth would I join a site where all it is is updating my status over and over. I have Facebook, thanks, that's enough for me. This Twitter thing sounds dumb. It will be here and gone like MySpace. I don't even know anybody that is on it and how can I keep my privacy protected by people I don't want know anything about! Plus, you only get 140 characters to type something. BLAH! (2010)

Some of this sounds familiar, except that no one was bugging me to join, so I didn’t need to recite the speech to anyone else.

                I first signed up for Twitter in early July of this year. The process was simple, as illustrated below:

As you can see, I created an account, started following the recommended people, then logged off and didn’t think about it again until September. As it turned out not to be a required part of the course I was taking, I simply didn’t see the need to use it.

                Unfortunately, this initial jaunt into the Twitterverse caused a fair amount of stress upon reading the requirements for this course. Knowing that I needed to follow Twitter and having previously found very little that I could do with it, a panic started to seep into my subconscious. I needn’t have worried. One Saturday morning lying in bed with my husband, lap top propped on pillows, skimming through the tweets on my home page and I really started to see what Twitter could offer me. Maybe it was because I didn’t quite understand what they meant and my eyes were drawn to what my brain wanted to puzzle out.  Or maybe it’s the nature of the people I initially started to follow. Whatever it was, the first thing I noticed were the links. All of these people sharing links to sites containing solid educational ideas, theories and resources. I spent a lot of time clicking on links and discovering what was being shared.

                Over the course of several days, I discovered other things I could do with Twitter. The cool thing about Twitter, as with so many social networking sites, is that you can find other people or organizations to connect with by looking at the people you are following and checking out  what they are doing. If someone you are following retweets (forwards) a message, the original tweeter may be someone you want to follow. I’ve found a number of people to follow using this feature. In addition, using the search box to the right, you can search for people or institutions to follow. Initially this was not all that successful. I tried searching for the authors of some of the books my class will be reading, but found only private individuals with messages professing undying love or excitement over an approaching holiday. Some searches did reveal useful links. Searching for the History Channel, I discovered not only the link but also the ‘this day in history’ videos that I can’t wait to use in my class. I also went back to some websites, like the Target store website, where I had seen the ‘follow on Twitter’ links and signed up to follow that way. My husband was quite impressed with this, stating, “That’s so cool! Now the new deals come straight to us instead of us looking for them. Now all we need is an Iphone so we can follow when we’re down in the states or out and about.” I was well on my way now to using Twitter to meet both professional and personal goals.

Twitter for Personal Use
          At a party the other day, I asked a friend of mine if she was on Twitter. She smiled and shook her head, saying that she was really resisting joining as she had enough on-line activities taking up her time. Her boyfriend, however, was as devoted a tweeter as he was a sports fan and would send her texts of the news he found on Twitter all the time. He was thrilled with the ability of Twitter users to find out up to the minute sports news and share them. My friend pointed out that even sportscasters were using Twitter, siting a trade that was posted on Twitter, then broadcast on the news 4 minutes later, with the sportscaster admitting that he might not have heard of the trade this early had it not been for Twitter.
          This is the part of Twitter that excites me. Sharing information and exchanging ideas in real time. I can post a question and someone will likely answer it quickly. I can be notified when the next Fred Meyer flier is ready and then check it out through the link or on the RSS feed. The minute something happens, let's say, in the Canuck hockey world, not only would I know about it but also what all my contacts think of it. Twitter may be the end of blank looks on my part when someone says, 'hey, did you hear about.."

Twitter for Professional Use

                Twitter is gaining popularity. The following slide show outlines a variety of ways Twitter can be useful for education professionals.

Twitter for teachers

View more presentations from koxley.

Twitter Nuts and Bolts

                Twitter itself represents a new way of communicating and collaborating with others, and, much as one learns a new language and set of norms when immersed in a new culture, there are a few things new tweeters need to know.

                Once your account is set up and you are following others, it’s important to decide what your goals are with this account. If networking with other education professionals is your goal, then you need to create a personal learning community (PLN) and actively participate in it. Start by searching for education professionals you know of – people you know in real life or whose blogs you read, for example. Click on their names and visit their profile pages. Check and see who they are following by looking at the list of posts on the profile page and try following some of those people.

                To build up you Twitter presence, actively post items that would be of interest to others.  Personal information is fine, but it will probably only be of interest to people you know well. Posting links to useful sites that outline professional development opportunities, resources or lesson plans seems to be the best way of sharing information. Due to the limited number of characters allowed in a tweet, there are sites that allow Twitter users to shrink the url of the site they want to direct others to. Let’s say that I want to direct people to a video of CTV BC’s news cast on the resignation of BC Premier Gordon Campbell. If I copy and past the following URL - http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101103/bc_campbell_announcement_101103/20101103?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

I wouldn’t have any room to explain what the url is or post my opinions. Using a URL shrinker, like Bit.ly, allows me to create space in my tweets for more than a url (Ludwig, 2010). To use it:

It is also a good idea to make sure that you come off as a legitimate person to follow. Upon creating a practice account (to get the ‘how to’ shots) I was instantly followed by two women claiming that ‘cool men message me’ and that they hoped not to spend another night alone. Since I deactivated the account quickly, I didn’t need to go through the process of blocking them from following me, however, it was a little disconcerting. Librarian Bobbie Newman states that her criteria for following someone includes making sure that he or she has a real name and bio and that this person is not relying on the default avatar (2010).

Oops! That includes me. So I tried to add a photo, but each time I ended up with this error message:

I admit that I haven't yet solved my problem, although I plan to keep trying. Maybe if I tweet about it, someone will have the answer.

One final thing...

I wasn't on Twitter for very long before someone suggested that I use Tweetdeck. The following set of pictures out lines the process I went through to set up and use Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck not only brings my tweets to me on my desktop, it also allows me to read tweets, reply to tweets, retweet and search at the same time. If I had a portable device, Tweetdeck would be even more useful.




















































References

Bradley, P. (2009). Using twitter in libraries. Retrieved from http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295581

College@home. (2010). Twitter for librarians: the ultimate guide. Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295582

Johnson, S. (2009). How twitter will change the way we live. Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/328540

Kingston, C. (2010). Twitter for Beginners. Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295578

Ludwig, S. (2009). Top 10 twitter tips for beginners. Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295579

Nelson, C. (2009). Cultivating a PLN through your reader. Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/789220

Newman, B. (2010). How to decide who to follow on twitter. Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/1541195

Newman, B. (2010). 10 ways twitter will make you a better employee, better at your job and benefit your library. Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/2466229

O’Connell, J. (2009). Making twitter work for me – and you! Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/916667

Tech & Learning. (2009). Nine reasons to twitter in schools. Retrieved from http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/297714

Wikipedia. (2010). Twitter. Retreived from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/295574

Young, B. (2010). Is this thing on? Retrieved from: http://www.trailfire.com/joannedegroot/marks/1195312