Seriously Teachers, It's Time to Join Twitter

If you’ve already started reading this post, you might as well accept it:  by the time you get to the end of the page you will have a Twitter account and be well on your way to falling in love with the social media site.  “But why Twitter?” you’re probably asking.  “I already have Facebook, I already Pinterest like crazy, what’s the point?”  

Here’s why: Twitter is the easiest way to connect and converse with educators from around the world who share your passions.   As one teacher puts it, “Twitter is like having a professional learning superpower” and I couldn't agree more. 

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After a rough day at school, when I’m maybe starting to feel a little pessimistic about students or education in general, I fire up Twitter and see all the amazing lessons, ideas, wisdom, success stories, and positive energy from my digital peers and it picks me right back up.  In short, Twitter is like have an outstanding team of educators in your pocket at all times (or on your PC, if you’re still not into this whole smartphone thing).  

So let’s do this! Get ready to take your first steps into the Twittersphere!  First, you'll want to open up a new browser tab or window and head over to Twitter.  Once there, you'll find this box just waiting to be filled out:

Your Journey Begins

Go ahead, sign up… we’ll be waiting right here!  You know you want to check it out…

All right, nicely done!  You’re on your way!

Next up, choose a username.  Don’t stress out about it too much, you can change it later.  Maybe pick some sort of awesome teacher name like “TheTweetinTeach” or whatever floats your boat.

Personally, I would recommend unchecking the “Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits.”  One, it creeps me out a little bit.  Two, I have no idea how my website history would translate to the Twitterverse and I’m not sure I’d like to know.  

Then click, Create Account!  Welcome aboard the Twitter Train!  (The Twain? Maybe I should just avoid word play…)

You're In!

Now, Twitter will give you a quick walkthrough, but here’s the gist of it.  They’re going to ask you to start by following five people (it’s too late to turn back now!)  

You’ve got a couple options here.  You could search for a topic, like “Education” or “Ed Tech” or “Physical Education” or whatever you’re interested in. Or, if you just want some great educators to follow, I would recommend:

@PrincipalJ, @coolcatteacher, @kellyhines, @paulawhite, @tedrosececi, and @dsdixon

Or, if you’ve got favorite blogs or websites, odds are they’re on twitter too, so you can follow them as well (@edudemic, @edutopia, @edweekteacher, and so on…)

Build That Timeline!

Now wait a second, what’s all this “@” business?  And what about these hashtags (#), what’s their deal?  

The “@” is used to designate a person/company/business.  It goes before a name, like you’re sending a tweet or message AT someone.  The hashtag is used to “tag” or categorize tweets.  If you want to find out what’s going on with educational technology, you could search #edtech, and all the recent EdTech posts would show up.

Back to setting up your account, if you don’t want to import actual contacts (there’s really no need to, you can find them later) you can just click the semi-concealed “skip” button at the bottom.

Next up… add a photo!  I’d recommend at least adding something, otherwise you’re stuck with the default Egg-head picture and people might think you’re a dreaded SPAM BOT instead of the awesome teacher that you actually are…

Who are you??

After you’ve got your photo, it’s time to write a short Bio.  How can you describe yourself in 160 characters or less?  What are you passionate about?  What do you want to learn more about?  You can always leave this part blank for the time being if you've run into a writer’s block...

And that’s all there is to it!  You’re in!  THIS. IS. TWITTER!

But don’t worry, I’m not going to just leave you high and dry and let you try to navigate the Twasteland all by yourself.  

At the top you’ve got four navigation buttons: Home / Connect / Discover / Me

The Home Page is… well it’s your home.  Here’s where you can see what everyone is tweeting, find new people to follow, and see what’s trending.  

The Connect Page will show you if anyone is tweeting about you, retweeting (i.e. reposting) what you’ve said, following you, or favoriting your tweets.  

The Discover Page is great if you’re looking for new people to follow.  It will create a list of tweets and users based on your interests.

And the Me Page shows who is following you and if you have any direct messages.

The connect page shows your interactions

So, you’ve got your bearing now, maybe you’ve found a few outstanding educators to follow, what’s next?  Personally, I’m not a big fan of how the Twitter feed looks.  There's so much on the screen, so many tweets, and it gets a little cluttered sometimes. I know, I know, I just spent this whole article talking about how great Twitter is and now this?  

Well Twitter is great, but I still don’t like the layout.  Personally, I love using FlipBoard.  But it’s only available on Tablets, Kindles, Nooks, etc.  if you have one.  It will turn your tweets into a magazine like book that makes it a million times easier to read through.  You get previews of articles and pictures and it just looks nice!  Plus, it’s free!  But if you’re tablet-less and still want to get a different look out of twitter, here’s a whole list of web-based suggestions for Macs and PCs.

OK!  So, you’ve got your account, you’ve found some people to follow, maybe you’ve switched to Flipboard or HootSuite or something new, and you’re ready to start tweeting and sharing!

The Easiest way to start is to think of what you want to say!  Maybe something like, “I’m new in town #NewToTwitter #Teacher #Education #Whatever ElseYou’reInterestedIn”  Or you can start tweeting directly @ other people.  Send a tweet at another teacher you like, or an organization you’re interested in talking with.

Tweet it up!

This is where the awesomeness of Twitter comes in!  All those blogs and sites and organizations that you love tor ead, you can now start a dialogue with them.  Go ahead, give it a try!  Some sites are better than others, but by and large, people and organizations on Twitter are ready to chat!

So, start chatting, start sharing, and start building your personal learning network (PLN).  You’ll soon be able to find great professional development, articles, ideas, lesson plans, and even friends!  Seriously, there are a ton of great, friendly educators on twitter who are happy to connect!  (And you can always follow me as well @edtechround – I love talking shop and sharing ideas on education)

And that’s it!  You made it!  You’re on twitter and you’re ready to take the training wheels off!  It’s time to fly... well virtually at least.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find Twitter to be as awesome and useful as I have! And in case you still want a little more info, here’s an excellent infographic from UC Rossier

Courtesy of: USC Rossier