Twitter for educators a tutorial for beginners 030513

Twitter for educators: A tutorial for beginners

Dan Krutka, PhD
Wichita State University
www.digitalsocialstudies.com

@WSUSocStudies

Daniel G. Krutka | 2013

Getting started
Start by going to www.twitter.com and enter your name, a valid e-mail
address, and a password you can remember:

Once you have signed up for Twitter it will take you to the next page…

This page will verify that your information. Ideally, your username should be short,
easy to remember, and reflect your purpose for using Twitter. I chose
“WSUSocStudies” because I created my account to use with my Wichita State
students and colleagues. You can change your username later. Below is a screenshot
of an account I created for my mom… we’ll see if she ever uses it:


If you check the option to “tailor twitter based on my recent website visits” then Twitter will make
recommendations based on users who visit similar sites. You should choose whether you prefer more
privacy or a more personalized Twitter experience.
I recommend that you that you skip the next couple steps where Twitter encourages you to find users to
follow. This is an important step, but there are better ways to do this.

If you choose to skip past the rest of the
Twitter set up then just type in
www.Twitter.com into your URL and you
should be able to get started. (You should
still be logged in, but if not, you will have to
re-log in). One simple way to find educators
to follow is to look at who other educators
follow or start following #hashtags like
#edchat (education), #sschat (social
studies), & more.


Add a profile and header picture! No one likes an egghead on Twitter. They’re
usually associated with Spam! You may want to avoid/block accounts with the
default egg picture. Also, never open links from strangers or suspicious messages
from friends.


Also update your profile with other pertinent information. This can be changed at any time.

This image (left) is an example of what your profile should
look like once you’ve added a profile picture and header.

You will likely want to change your e-mail notifications so you do
not receive a flood of Twitter-related messages to your inbox:


You should be ready to use Twitter now! Here is what your
Twitter feed should look like once you are following others:


It is important to be professional in all tweets because they are public. If you are
planning to use Twitter professionally then you should not make your account
private. This prevents you from using Twitter to connect with others. Private Direct
Messages (DMs) can be sent between two twitter users who follow each other:


A wise poster on Twitter once tweeted to me, “Twitter is like a waterfall. Stick
out your cup and fill it, but don’t worry if you don’t get it all.” You may leave
Twitter for a few days at a time, but you do not want to miss tweets directed
at you. You can check the interactions tab to ensure this does not happen:


When you first begin Twitter you will have few followers to send your tweets. If you hope to
connect to the larger community then you must use hashtags (e.g., #edchat, #sschat,
#engchat, #mathchat, #scichat, #elemchat, etc.) to broaden your audience and grown your
personal learning network (PLN). Your ability to grow your PLN and use Twitter effectively
will be enhanced when you post insightful comments and/or good resources like this:

Hopefully by this point you understand that Twitter is much more than narcissistic microbits
of blabber like this:

(My mom did not really post this!)

Many educators use Twitter to find, share, support, and collaborate in ways they
never thought possible previously!
Use the tabs on www.digitalsocialstudies.com to learn more!

Twitter for educators a tutorial for beginners 030513

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