Tyson Seburn & Jeff Newman for New Media

1. Tyson Seburn - International Foundation Program, @seburnt
Jeff Newman – New College D.G. Ivey Library, @iveylibrary

2. Basic Twitter vocabulary
Tweet: the status Follow: act of Mentions: tweets Hashtag: #words
update (i.e. what selecting people that mention your to categorise
everyone writes on whose tweets you @twittername tweets for easy
Twitter) wish to view specifically searching
Homepage: your
base for reading
Twitter feed (i.e.
other people’s
tweets)
Feed: the column
where you see
yours and your
follower’s tweets
Trends: currently
popular categories
on Twitter

3. Now let’s set you up...
New to Twitter Twitter old-timer
 Go to twitter.com  Log in and look for the
 Sign up with any examples of twitter
username and email. vocabulary and
organisation mentioned.
 Search and follow these (e.g. Tweet, follow,
initial accounts: mentions, hashtag,
@seburnt homepage, feed, trends,
@iveylibrary etc.)
@UofTNews  Follow these accounts:
@blogTO @seburnt
@CBCToronto @iveylibrary
@UofTNews
@blogTO
@CBCToronto

4. Let’s try a couple things.
1. Compose a tweet.  Where does it go?
Can you see others’
tweets?
2. Compose an @  Where does it go?
mention to @seburnt. Can you see anyone
(e.g. @seburnt Hello else’s @ mention to
there!) me?
3. Say something about  Where does it go?
this workshop with the Can you see anyone
hashtag #newmedia else’s?
How can you find
them?

5. A couple other features...
@Connect: You #Discover: See Direct messages: Me: Your profile
can see @ tweets Twitter think Send & receive page = a collection
mentions and new are good for you, msgs only you and of your photo,
followers in one your followers’ mian that person can see description &
place. activities, new tweets.
accounts to follow,
etc.

6. Some useful points...
• If you don’t follow anyone, there’s no point.
• If no one follows you, there’s no point.
• Follow people and try interacting. Then they often
follow you.
• Search for key words or people to follow (e.g.
University of Toronto).
• Use “tweet” buttons on websites, blogs, journals, etc.
http://bit.ly/X3B6xV
• Retweet (RT) your followers’ good tweets (using the
link below any tweet). They will do the same for you.
• There is an etiquette. http://bit.ly/X3ApEU

7. Twitter in the classroom

8. University of Texas@Dallas
 Dr. Monica Rankin
 History Class
 90 Students

9. Video and responses

10. Operational points
 Twitter feed displayed live in class
 Used a new hash tag every week to help
students search for specific content
 #week1
 #week2
 #week3, etc.

11. Rankin’s “best practices”
 Break into small groups and tweet best
ideas – then allow students to respond.
 TA responded to tweets in real time.
 Students could also submit “tweets” by
hand to the TA who would post them.
 Used the “favourites” feature to indicate
material which might appear on the
exam.

12. Rankin’s Limitations
 140 characters limits detail
 Replies to tweets appear in the normal
stream, not attached to the initial tweet.
Ranking found this disorienting

13. Person driving the learning process
Professor

14. Person driving the learning process
Professor

15. University of Wisconsin
 https://twitter.com/
profefurness

16. What do students think?
[Tara] Johnson says tweeting in Spanish has also helped
her grasp and retain the Spanish language because she
and other students often receive almost instant feedback
on their tweets from Furness.
"I love tweeting in Spanish!" she says. "It really helps
build my Spanish vocabulary and allows me to practice
grammar. And if I happen to tweet a verb in the wrong
form, Professor Furness will tweet back within like 10
minutes correcting me.”
http://r.umn.edu/about-umr/news/UMR_CONTENT_373255.html

20. lab
Mon. 9-11 Wed. 9-11 Thu. 9-11 Fri. 9-11

21. Mon. 9-11 Wed. 9-11 Fri. 9-11

22. Twitter writing assignments

23. https://sites.google.com/site/profhackeri
mg/Twitter-Matrix.jpg

25. Tweetchat

26. Tweetkeeper

27. Hootsuite

28. Best practices
 Make it active and  Dunlap, J.C. &
relevant to course Lowenthal, P.R.
content and (2009). Tweeting
assignments the Night Away:
 Define clear Using Twitter to
expectations Enhance Social
 Model responsible Presence. Journal of
Twitter use Information
Systems Education.
 Build Twitter into Retrieved November
assessment 19, 2009
 Stay active, too.

29.  Like most, if not all Web 2.0
tools, Twitter is not
appropriate
 for all instructional situations.
For instance, Grosseck and
 Holotescu (2008) identify a
number of problems with using
 Twitter for educational
purposes