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Using Twitter to Support Teaching. Dominic Bygate d.bygate@herts.ac.uk Ashlesha S hukla a.shukla4@herts.ac.uk. What are we trying to do?. By the end of the session Participants will have : become familiar with some of the key features of Twitter
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Using Twitter to Support Teaching Dominic Bygate d.bygate@herts.ac.uk Ashlesha Shukla a.shukla4@herts.ac.uk
What are we trying to do? By the end of the session Participants will have: • become familiar with some of the key features of Twitter • seen how Twitter can be used to support students’ learning • have explored opportunities where Twitter and social media can be used in teaching • seen how Twitter can be integrated into StudyNet • considered what support you may need to start using Twitter in your teaching
What Can Twitter do? • Find interesting people/organisations online, and follow their tweets • Broadcast /receive messages containing information, links, photos and use tools to create an ever changing network of people and information • Have a group activity in real time
Twitter https://twitter.com/DominicBygate
Twitter Basics # Users can group posts together by topics or type by the use of ‘hashtags’ – words or phrases prefixed with a # @ the @ sign followed by a username is used for mentioning a particular individual or group or replying to other users d the letter ‘d’ followed by a username allows users to send messages privately RT retweet - to forward a post/emphasise a tweet that has been sent to you, in other words, Twitter’s equivalent of quoting. RT@ followed by the name of the person who sent it to you. It goes to people following you
Features • Tweets • Following • Followers • Favourites • Lists
How do get a Twitter account? • https://support.twitter.com/articles/100990-signing-up-with-twitter# • https://support.twitter.com/groups/50-welcome-to-twitter/topics/203-faqs/articles/13920-new-user-faqs#
How are people using Twitter? According to Fitton et al. (2009: 12), Twitter is used: • To connect – most people use Twitter to forge connections and be part of a community; • To record – some people tweet as a way of taking notes on life; • To share – some people use Twitter to share what they think, read and know; and • To stay in touch – people use Twitter to stay in touch with groups.
Some Questions • Who is your audience? • What exactly are you trying to achieve? • What commitment are you willing to make ? • Do have the resources you need to keep it refreshed and relevant? For how long? • How will you measure success? Set a target and a review point.
Twitter in Teaching Twitter can be used in different ways: • Live session in class – back channel discussion • Out of class – asynchronous discussion • Out of class – synchronous discussion/meeting • Posting of information/news/alerts • Finding resources • Professional development • And more……
Twitter for teaching: Can social media be used to enhance theprocess of learning? Chris EvansBritish Journal of Educational Technology (2013) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.12099/pdf
Integration with StudyNet Tweets can appear live on module homepage(s) as one of • All tweets from a specified account eg @dominicbygate • Tweets from everyone which include a particular hashtag eg #ltiworkshop • Favorite tweets – you select each tweet you want to favour • Lists - organise people you follow by theme/subject • You need a Widget to put a Twitter feed on Studynet • Create a widget at : https://twitter.com/settings/widgets
Some Tips • Plan what you are going to do, set tasks, ask questions etc.Ensure students have access to and can use Twitter. • Agree ground rules • Use a warm-up question to both test the system and get learners interested • Twitter works well when learners are involved in the discussion. • Try getting learners to discuss answers, ideas etc. between themselves. • Provide plenty of time for learners to respond to the questions. • Tweets can consist of for example; replies, images, questions, links to articles/resources etc. (with thanks to ScaLe Project)
TodaysMeetOnline chat room – can be used to harvest the back channel communication http://todaysmeet.com/
Discussion How can we use Twitter to support our students learning?
References Fitton, L., Gruen, M.E. and Poston, L. (2009), Twitter for Dummies, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Publishing. ScaLeProject:http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/ltig/scale.aspx#downloads