A 2016 version of a presentation I gave for EFL Teachers locally (Argentina) and abroad, for a couple of Congresses. It covers the advantages of integrating Twitter into our PD

1. Transform and
Tailor your
Teaching with
Twitter
(latest edition May 6, 2016)
Rita Zeinstejer

2. •“a free social networking and micro-blogging service that
allows users to send updates…”Wikipedia
•“the most popular of the genre of 'microblogging' tools that
emulate SMS messaging but fall short of blogging…”V. Stevens
•“one of the largest platforms in the world for sharing real-time
data”Douglas A. McIntyre, in TIME
Twitter

3.  Twitter serves two main purposes:
•Information in - getting information from many
sources coming to you in one place
•Information out - broadcasting your own information
to many sources

4. • imposes necessity to abbreviate fitting in ideas
• develops skills for word selection
• fulfils a need of …being fast and getting instant feedback
• …getting more connections
• encourages autonomous learning
• uses tags to build up a network
• shapes your own community
• helps share real time data
microblogging pluses

5. •ask for and provide help
•share ideas
•get advice
•make recommendations
•announce events
used to

6. •combines features of SMS text messages and blogs
•up to 140 characters long text-based posts
•updates instantly delivered
•delivery restrictions
•updates via instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email
Features
http://twitter.com/home

9. •relevance
•quickness
•distinct style
•conversational
Why the interest…?

10. everyday use…?
•dissemination of publications and materials
•product recommendations
•serendipitous improvement
•serendipitous discovery
•locating original sources of ideas, quotes, etc.
•following celebrities

11. tweet to….
•follow conversations
•follow others
•participate in a community
•correct tweets
•integrate note-passing into a lesson
•collaborate in
twitterature

13.  Create hashtagged chats
 Ex: #ELTChat

16. Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books
Retold Through Twitter
Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin
Two students' efforts to reduce the great works of literature to
digestible 'tweets'
 50-odd works of serious literature into two-page chunks of
twitterese
 jokey attempts to parody literary styles
 grown-up readers might find the odd thing to smile at
 it's like listening to teenagers jabbering on the bus
 fun for other 19-year-olds

17. benefits as a classroom tool….?
•offers opportunities to practice specific language skills
•stds learn how to focus on what they say better
•class chatter: conversations continue inside and outside of class
•development of classroom community
•get a sense of the world

18. benefits as a classroom tool….?
•increase parental awareness
•track a word
•track a conference
•instant feedback
•follow a professional/ famous person
•storytelling

19. Twitter en conjunción con
otras
herramientas

20. Introduce Twitter to your class:
thank you, Jen!
 tweet a greeting from your stds
 request an answer from followers
 see answers coming in
 place them on map

21. with Google Maps
talk about a trip/excursion
. zoom right into the area you want to pin
. click ‘add a placemark’ and position on the map
. describe what you did there or what is possible
. let others know about the new experience through Twitter

22. basically….. all about
conversation
 keep students in contact
 emphasize fluency in communication
 focus on conciseness and accuracy
 can lead to more interactive and swift discussions
 well suited to task-based language learning

23. Infographic: College Students –
Is Twitter Hurting Your Grades?

26. Great Point Average: .51

28. Responsible Use Considerations
 How will students access/use Twitter?
 Who provides support?
 What activities will they carry out?
 What policies are in place?
* cyberbullying committee, anonymous reporting
* responsible use agreement
* parental consent, std assent
 How will accounts be administered?
* blocking, following, privacy

29. How can we
use Twitter
with our
students?

30.  assign a tweet chat: use specific vocab
 homework help sessions: with mentors
 backchannel during class for queries (use
projector)

31. learn about online resources, find lesson plans and
connect with likeminded educators
 Here are a few must-follow Twitter accounts for ELA teachers:
 NCTE The National Council of Teachers of English has a Twitter feed that shares
events and resources. Their tweets include reminders for live chats and links to
articles on reading instruction.
 Reading Rainbow Reading Rainbow’s Twitter feed includes plenty of ideas for
teachers. They share favorite books for read alouds students will love.
 ReadWorks Tweets from ReadWorks include links to short reading passages for
K-12 students. Teachers will find resources for lesson plans too.
 Teachability Teachability shares links to blog posts that are very relevant to ELA
teachers. You’ll also learn about upcoming events including free webinars.
 Newsela The Newsela Twitter feed is full of links to current events articles that
students will love. The folks at Newsela share paired passages and relevant new
stories that are accessible for kids.
 TED-Ed TED-Ed shares short video clips for teachers and students. This is a
great Twitter feed for gathering ideas and inspiration.

33. as a personal learning
tool:
 powerful
 a great information filter
 lets me interact with experts I’ll never meet f2f
 an instant give-and-take
 forces me to be a reflective learner

34. Personal learning
suggestions
 Follow influential people
 Crowdsourcing: sharing answers to
problems
 Instant messaging
 Conference backchannel tool
 Track breaking news
 Serendipitous and/or instant collaboration
 Locate sources
 Lend or receive support

35. for educators…?
 join any conference
 share discussion during/ after
 follow the stream
 make it a sizzling conference!
 perfect tool for mobile devices

36. remember…
 it’s an opt-out society
 use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL
 commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what
others have posted is a great way to build community
 it’s an instant “backchannel”
 a tool for learning: provided you follow the right folks!

37. Tools complementing
Twitter

38. http://www.twibes.com/
a group of Twitter users interested in a common topic

39.  finds Twitter people interested in similar topics
 enables people to meet and participate in conversations
 gathers likeminded members around key words
 organizes tweets
 encourages community formation
 anybody can find and join any group

40. http://www.scribd.com/about

41. Tagdef http://tagdef.com/

42. http://paper.li/
http://paper.li/tag/webheads
 read Twitter as a daily newspaper
 organize links shared on Twitter into an easy-to-read
newspaper-style format.
 newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list
or #tag.

43.  http://twittertim.es/

44. http://twittertim.es/
 choose to open one of three types of pages
 on a daily/hourly basis
 looks for followers’ tweets + 2nd circle of friends
 can retweet from your page
 Top News History

45. ???????
?

47. http://www.grouptweet.com/
 helps groups communicate privately via Twitter
 allows users to send a private message to another
user + send it to multiple users

48. promotes use of Twitter
http://screenr.com/
 instant screencasts for Twitter
 web-based recorder: nothing to download

49. http://spezify.com/
 generates extensive and diverse search results:
 choose: images, text, video, sounds, tweets.

50. http://twitcam.livestream.com/
 posts your video description and link to Twitter for
all your followers to see
 chat with your viewers via Twitter right from your
broadcast page
 archive your video and display it on the same page.

51. http://twaud.io/
 upload your mp3 file or record it directly
 add a message
 it’ll be tweeted on your behalf with a link to a page where
your followers can listen to and comment on your clip
 you can see how many visitors it’s had.

52.  https://tweepsmap.com/

53.  http://eltchat.org/wordpress/uncatego
rized/how-to-use-twitter-apps/
 Hootsuite – Signing Up
 Hootsuite – How does it work?
 Tweetdeck – Signing Up

54. http://cwd.co.uk/storysofar/

55. Tips…
 answer “What has your attention?”
 promote a blog post
 ask for opinions
 follow interesting people
 direct student’s attention to good things
 caution: be wary of always promoting your stuff
 talk about non-education stuff too.

58. new
 http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/03/this-is-how-to-use-twitter-as-curation.html
 How to create a twitter poll:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoH68e_C2Ro&feature=em-subs_digest-g
 http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2015/09/16/why-a-class-twitter-
account/
 http://teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/technology/what-to-do-on-
twitter-50-ideas-for-teachers/
 http://www.twtbase.com/tweetknot/

59. http://www.teachthought.com/technology/t
witter-tips-for-teachers/

61. new

63. Rita Zeinstejer
rita@zeinstejer.com

64.  Holly Rae Bemis-Schurtz and Cynthia S. Medina: Edmodo, Twitter and Yammer:
Microblogging in Education (webinar January 25, 2010)