Rebekah Zuberbuehler

Taylor Olsson

Deanna Davis

Kevin Hall

Web 2.0 Tutorial

Twitter

Twitter is a social network that can be accessed from anywhere at any time. It is considered to be a Web 2.0 application, because its value lies in content, not the software used to display content, data and information can be easily shared, encourages people to exchange and promote information, and the more people who contribute, the better the content gets.

Creating an Account

• Go to www.twitter HYPERLINK "http://www.twitter.com/". HYPERLINK "http://www.twitter. HYPERLINK "http://www.twitter.com/"com/"com

• Click Sign up for Twitter

• Fill out the information, click Create my account

• Follow the instructions on the screen. They will ask you to “follow” others. When you “follow” someone you will see whatever they post (called a tweet) on your timeline (homepage).

• Next, it will ask you to upload a picture, and enter a small bio about yourself.

• Once you have completed this it will take you to your main page. It should look something like this:

• You can explore the many features here. You’ll see your timeline to the right, and on the left, a few suggestions of people you might know to follow, under that, a list of the most popular topics “trending.” You might notice some of these starts with a “#”. This is called a “hashtag.” You can hashtag anything you want in a tweet. It can be a word, a phrase, a date, or anything to do with you posted tweet. Here are some examples of how to use a hashtag:

• You might also notice a lot of “@” everywhere. These are how to tag someone (include or mention them in your tweet, or wherever you type). The @ is followed by a user name. For example: @OhhRekekah @CBSNews

In a tweet it will look like similar to this:

• To compose a tweet go to the upper right corner and click on the blue box.

• You can add a photo or your location to the tweet by using these buttons:

• Click tweet when you are finished and it will post to your page, and the timeline of those who follow you.

• Your tweets, who you follow, and your followers can be seen on your profile page, which can be customized to yourself.

• If you like someone else’s tweet, you can retweet it by clicking the double arrow:

• You can also reply to them, or favorite it in the same way.

Twitter in Education:

In Education, Twitter can be used for many things. In the classroom it is important to involve students in expressing their opinions effectively. Students using Twitter can follow educators, principals, other students, or just their general interests. In today's society where nearly everyone is a part of social networking, it is important to relate to students in a way that they would enjoy. Twitter can be used for sharing opinions effectively as was for mentioned because they can participate in virtual classroom discussions, collaboration on projects, have a classroom community, and allows students to write and express themselves in a fun way. All in all, Twitter can be used as a useful tool in education.

Pros of Twitter in Education:

• being limited to just 140 characters really focuses the attention, it's developed its own sort of discursive grammar set, requiring a great deal of summarizing

• twitter connects people that one would not have met otherwise• twitter can keep track of a conversation that the students are having on a certain topic• makes teachers available even after school hours• connects our students to the real world• students who normally won’t speak up in class can speak up through twitter• twitter is a resource that educators can actually post lecture notes or give reminders on

making sure to bring certain items

Cons of Twitter in Education:

• twitter can be too distracting for some students• the message being posted will only be picked up by the people in the network• can be addictive• if not used by the right person could actually take away from the education value• teachers using twitter can be asked a question at any time which mean students can be

intruding into your personal life• allows much faster spreading of rumors in the school • the 140 characters count could lead to worse grammar skills

Used In Unit Plan:

My students used Twitter in their Simple Guitar Lesson by using it as a source to get connected with classmates and post their feelings about their favorite chords tha they were learning in class.