TodaysMeet for Twitter Basics

There are some amazing resources online for teachers who would like to get started using Twitter, but aren't quite sure how. When I first started using Twitter,  I would begin to read these blogs and get completely overwhelmed. How would I have time to tweet if I couldn't find the time to finish reading an article about tweeting?

Here I will put together some Twitter basics then explain how I have used todaysmeet to teach twitter basics to middle school students..

Create an Account

As always, create your account. Go to twitter - the link brings you directly to a page on which you can create an account. If you are trying to brand yourself, you will want to use a name that is recognizable and consistent with your brand. Same goes with your profile picture. Think before you create: This is how you are building your digital footprint. What footprint do you want to have?

Hashtags

Hashtags are user generated shortcuts so you can get right to the types of tweets (twitter posts) that you want to read. Including them in your tweets means that like-minded tweeps (Twitter + peeps = tweeps, your people on twitter!) can find your tweets easily as well. They look like #edchat (which is a great hashtag for teachers to search for).

How do you know what hashtags to use?  First, search online for whatever it is that you are interested in and include the word "hashtags." So, if you want to learn more about education, you search "education hashtags." You will find a list of sites that will include options for you to use. A good site will also include a brief description of the hashtag so that you know exactly what is being discussed. For example, classroom teachers and school administrators will have different interests when it comes to education.

Next, go back to twitter and search for the hashtags you uncovered. If you read through the tweets and check out any links provided, you will have a pretty good idea if this was the right hashtag for you. You will also be exposed to a variety of other hashtags that may also interest you. Keep searching the options that you found and explore the new hashtags that you encounter.

You can also try to create a hashtag. Just type it into your tweet and explain what you would like to use it for. Here are edublog's favorite educational hashtags for 2012.

Following

At first, I only followed people that I knew - only people who had presented at conferences that I found very engaging. Now I am following several people that I don't know, but that I picked up along the way because of the great things they have included in their tweets. It is simple to add a person to the people that you follow: from their tweet, just select their name so their profile will pop up and select the "follow" button. Done! 

Mentions

It is great to get mentions on twitter as that increases your visibility. To mention a fellow tweep, just begin to type their name with @ before it. Usually you will get a drop down menu that lists the tweeps you follow and you can just select their name. Be sure to give credit for other people's ideas and blogs by including their name on any link to their material that you post!

TodaysMeet.com

So now that you have the basics, let's look at how you can begin to teach this safely in the classroom. As the teacher of middle school students, I do not want to put them on twitter quite yet. They are not all age 13, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) means that websites do not allow people under the age of 13 to create accounts.

Instead, I use todaysmeet. Todaysmeet is a private feed similar to twitter that you can create, set an expiry date, and have only those people you invite and supply with the url attend. 

Think about how you will use this feed. Will students post English vocabulary terms from literature that they are reading? Will they post word problems that they generate for math? Will your department use it as a way to have a departmental meeting or plan for a departmental meeting?

My students used todaysmeet for a project about Day of the Dead. Each student had to post a question about Day of the Dead. Then they had to find a question that a classmate posted. They would answer the questions by starting with a mention of the person who posted it. As students wanted to focus in on more and more specific topics, we created our own original hashtags to include in the posts. Before the page expired, I clicked on "Transcript" under the feed and saved our feed! How could you use todaysmeet?

Now that you have some ideas, follow the link to the homepage. Name your room and set an expiry time. Time options include 2, 8, and 12 hours, one week, and one month. Each user must have the exact url in order to join the chat. Supply your students with the url (or create a QR code for them to scan) and some basic twitter manners:

• Sign in with your real first name.
• Do not use all caps.
• All posts must be school appropriate.
• If you are responding to someone, you must use @name to mention them.
• If you are tweeting about a specific topic, you must include the class generated hashtag.

That was pretty much it. They were so excited that any straying from these rules led other students to correct the wayward child.

Ready for more?!?

Checkout Cybraryman's resources ... AMAZING! Now, go get your tweet on!