Twitter is the best professional development tool for educators. This presentation shows how Twitter can be used to develop your own professional learning network as an educator.

1. as a Professional
Development ToolKevin Scritchfield
Instructional Designer/Activities Coordinator
Fresno City College, Fresno, CA
mrscritch@gmail.com http://tiny.cc/TwitterPLN
Continuing Education Instructor
Fresno Pacific University:
Cloud Computing for Educators
Twitter as a Professional Development Tool
The Flipped Classroom
Creator of Alge-Bingo
an Algebra Bingo
game for the
iPad & iPhone

2. I thought Twitter was just for celebrities to
tell the world what they had for breakfast?!
. . . or . . . “I already have a
Facebook account, I don’t need
something else to keep up with!”

3. Facebook is for your social life.
Twitter is for your professional
life.
It is absolutely amazing how
Twitter can become the best
professional development tool
you have ever used!

4. Twitter is like a massive resource of
educational tips and finds from other
educators.
James Gates, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYz9M70KVR0

5. Let’s see what we can
learn by searching
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/search/Humanizing Online Learning:
https://twitter.com/search?q=humanizing%20Online%20learning&src=typd
Or who about Online Learning Assessments:
https://twitter.com/search?q=Online%20learning%20assessments&src=typd
This brings up several different paths that we can take from here:
People - top left, each individual tweeting in list, “Top People”
Links - within the tweets, Videos
Hashtags - the # symbols - what are these?!

6. #hashtags
#edchat
#engchat
#mathchat
#higheredchat
#sschat
#OLCInnovate
#highered
#facdev

7. Perhaps you are
beginning to see that
people are critical to
the process here!
Following people who are
like-minded or share a
specific professional goal
with you is how you build a
Professional Learning
Network like none other
you’ve ever had!

8. Piqued your interest?
• Create an account
• Find people to follow
• Use a tool other than Twitter site
• Share - ReTweet
• Participate in some discussions (chats)
Getting Started:

9. Create an Account
Go to: https://twitter.com/ and sign up!
But wait!! Take a little time to be creative
with your user name! Here are some
examples from some of the people that I
follow:
@thedigitalteach
@web20classroom@TeachaKidd
@mistersill
@AliceKeeler

10. To follow or not to follow . . .
that is the question
"You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to
follow you, unless you know how to follow, too."
— Sam Rayburn
Remember, the reason that we are using Twitter
is to create a PLN of people to learn from and
share with. So we need to look for those kind of
people to follow.

11. So, how do you find other
educators on Twitter?!
Some “Heavy Hitters”:
@web20classroom
@AliceKeeler
@TomWhitby
@willkimbley
Or search out your interest areas and you will find people to
follow from there, such as #OER, #flippedclassroom,
#HigherEd.
Or
@OLCToday
@HigherEdSurge
@brocansky

12. And then there are other people I follow because their
philosophies on education, or just life in general, line
up with mine and we’ve shared several conversations
like @ktenkely, @newfirewithin, or
@jasonschmidt123.
Or even companies that have interesting educational
content like @Apps_School, @AdobeEdu,
@Educator, @tedtalks, and @Mathalicious
Or follow your school! @fresnocity

13. Educators on Twitter (search for ‘college’)
How to find your own
people to follow:
Categorical List
Some Heavy Hitters

14. Before you spend too
much time on Twitter:
The actual Twitter web site is about the worst place
to use Twitter for any length of time whatsoever.
You need to use a third-party client such as
TweetDeck (hands down the most popular computer
tool) or HootSuite (best for mobile devices) or many
others.
These clients allow you to keep track of multiple
things going on in Twitter and with the people you
are communicating with SO much easier!

15. A tip for keeping track
of information
tweeted by your PLN:
I use my Delicious account (you could use
Diigo or Google Bookmarks) in order to tag
anything that I find useful from the people
that I follow.

16. You can tweet
photos, videos, and
other filesIt’s pretty much snap a picture and hit a
button to tweet it out.

17. Twitter Chats and
HashtagsA Twitter Chat is a conversation amongst
people interested in a specific topic. One
thing that makes Twitter chats interesting is
that you can be having the conversation
with people from all over the world at the
same time. A Twitter chat is carried
through the use of a hashtag (like
#edtechchat) within each tweet. A client
like TweetDeck makes it easier to have that
hashtag included in each of your tweets

18. Twitter in the
Classroom
From kindergarten teachers to college
professors, Twitter is being used to
connect students to each other, to their
instructor, and to outside experts as well
as to provide a vehicle for
conversations, questions, and thought
provoking discussions.

19. Lists of Ways to use
Twitter in your
Classroom35 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in Your
Classroom
100 Serious Twitter Tips for Academics
50 Ways to use Twitter in the College
Classroom

20. Specific Lessons
using Twitter
Creative Writing or Some Examples
OMG, I CNT BLIEV WE R REALLY GTTNG 2 DO THS N SKUL
Twitter for Communication
Independence
Twitter for Q & A

21. Marc-André Lalande: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXPfxwKkSXM

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23. as a Professional
Development ToolKevin Scritchfield
Instructional Designer/Activities Coordinator
Fresno City College, Fresno, CA
mrscritch@gmail.com http://tiny.cc/TwitterPLN
Continuing Education Instructor
Fresno Pacific University:
Cloud Computing for Educators
Twitter as a Professional Development Tool
The Flipped Classroom
Creator of Alge-Bingo
an Algebra Bingo
game for the
iPad & iPhone