This document provides ideas for using Twitter in the classroom. It discusses how Twitter can be used as a context for learning across different subject areas. Specific ideas include using Twitter to share field trip updates with parents, conduct polls and decision making, provide feedback on student work, document literacy skills and share resources. Hashtags can help aggregate tweets by topic. Twitter can also be used for revision, research, and as an entrance/exit ticket for summarizing learning.

1. 'The 140 character
lesson plan' - ideas for
using Twitter in the
classroom
Alan Parkinson

2. Twitter is ten years old
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stairhopper/16947737331/sizes/l

3. AIMS
Twitter isn't just for stalking celebrities.
Come and find out how to use Twitter in
your department, and leave with
resources and ideas for using Twitter as a
context for learning in your own subject,
developing literacy skills and resourcing
new exam specifications.

4. Twitter is
an
example
of social
media…

5. What is it?
• A micro-blogging tool for sharing
updates on activity
• Used by 320 million users every
month, resulting in over 1 billion
visits to other websites

7. What does it involve?
List of jargon and terms involved in using Twitter
Tweet

8. My profile picture
Type in here
Add an
image (or
more than
Add location information
Add a poll
Counter

9. My accounts
@GeoBlogs – main account
@KingsElyGeog
@GI_Learner
@Geocapabilities
@Pensionerfrank
As of this Monday….

10. Private account – I approve anyone who follows me
My tweets don’t appear in the public timeline

11. Personal Learning Network (PLN)
Draw on this when working or wanting to find the answer
to something…
Has earned me over £20 000 over the last 5 years.

16. 1. Joining Twitter /
personal or dept. account
• You need an e-mail address
• It helps to create your profile so that it’s
not a blank logo
• It’s “social media” so ideally you are
connecting with people
• It only works once you start to follow
people

17. https://twitter.com/KingsElyGeog

18. Getting started…
Twitter is called a microblogging platform
because you’re only allowed to use 140
characters to send your “tweet” (message or
status)
A small counter records how many characters
have been used as you type your message.
Weblinks are automatically shortened to save
characters.

19. You can use Twitter without joining
• Can use it to search for news items and
resources, including images posted by people
• You can also follow hashtags, which are used
to aggregate tweets together

20. What is “Following?”
These are the people that you’ve chosen to “follow”.
It basically means that you’ll receive their tweets in
your stream and they’ll receive a notification that
you’ve chosen to follow them.
Try to maintain your twitter following to follower ratio
Who are “Followers?”
These are the people who have chosen to follow you.
You’ll start off at zero until you start tweeting or if the
people you’ve followed decide to follow you back.

21. What Does “@” Mean on Twitter?
The @ symbol means tweet “at”
someone. For instance my twitter handle
is @GeoBlogs. Meaning if you want to
mention me in a tweet you need to add
my name.

22. 2. SEARCHING TWITTER
http://www.visibletweets.com
http://www.tweetbeam.com/
https://twitterfall.com/
visualising certain terms or tags
http://allmytweets.net - download tweets from
a particular account

23. Hashtag
A label that can be used to identify a
Tweet as belonging to a particular
discussion or event.
#gaconf16 – conference I went to
last weekend…

24. FINDING
RESOURCES
SEARCH
function
Use words
and
hashtags…
Narrow
down using
dropdown
box…

25. New exam specifications

26. 3. Context for Learning
BB Park Warden Activity
http://www.geography.org.uk/resour
ces/careers/parkwarden
Using tweets of a person /
organisation as a resource…

27. 4.
Polling and
decision
making

28. Twitter Polls
Once a poll has been posted, it will remain open for 24 hours. When that time has
expired, voting will be closed automatically and the person who initiated the poll
will receive a notification that it has now ended, as well as a breakdown of the final
results. The winning choice will be highlighted in bold text for everyone to see.

29. 5. Feedback on work
Sharing pictures and inviting
PLN to comment.

30. Tweet activity 4000 views of this picture

31. Claire at the conference…

32. 6.
Selfies…

33. 7. Add a Twitter Widget to your
Firefly page
Option is in PROFILE SETTINGS…

34. Find out when people mention you….

35. 8. EVENTS AND FIELDTRIPS
Iceland fieldtrip…
Communicating with parents

36. Very positive
comments from
parents.
About 20 updates a
day.
Hashtag.
ALERTS
Keeping up to date
Factor cost of data
into cost of trip.

37. 9. Literacy skills & resources
What can you do in 140 characters?
People trapped
inside a
collapsed
building after an
earthquake

38. Dan in the Antarctic

39. http://www.simitator.com
Mocking up some ‘fake tweets’ as
stimulus or outcome…

40. Revision
- twitter revision sessions – set a time
and date…
Pre-release booklets for exams
Sharing ideas with other colleagues
Publishers also sharing ideas…

41. Twitter paper versions…
Plenary
Entrance / exit tickets
Summarising learning
Summarising larger texts

42. 10. Research – TLC – Action research…
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/research/impact-
toolkit/social-media/twitter/

43. Digital
tattoo
rather than
footprint

44. Danny Willett’s brother Paul: a
teacher….
Thanks for choosing my workshop 