Twitter

**TWITTER**
@http://twitter.com/

Twitter is a microblog that only allows you to write using 140 characters. Explore the potentials twitter can have in your classroom. Most students that have a smartphone can tweet straight from their device, you can also log on the computer and tweet from there. Take this workshop and explore the unlimited uses of twitter in education!


 * Topic: Twitter**
 * Workshop Length:** 1 Hour
 * Workshop Materials:** Computer Lab or Laptops, Projector
 * Max Number Of Participants:** 15
 * Short Description:** In this workshop, participants will register a twitter account, learn about twitter, learn how to use hash tags and backchannels, brainstorm ideas of how to use it in the classroom.
 * Goals Of Workshop:** Participants will
 * 1) Register for a twitter account
 * 2) Understand the components of twitter and learn about twitter basics
 * 3) Learn about hashtags and back channels
 * 4) Learn about Tweetdeck and Hootswite
 * 5) Brainstorm Ideas for use of blogs in the classroom


 * Format of Workshop:** hands on, discussion, demonstration, project based
 * Alignment with District Goals**: This workshop supports the 2006-2009 Salem School District Technology Plan by matching the skills gained to the following technology plan goals.

__**Teaching and Learning Goals **__ All teachers will use technology to improve instruction and student assessment. __**Literacy Goals **__ Literacy represents the ability to responsibly employ appropriate technology to access, process, and communicate information.  Students and Staff will:
 * Teachers and administrators will use technology to collect and analyze student assessment data
 * Demonstrate basic technology operations and concepts
 * Effectively express ideas using suitable media

=**Resources **=

**10 ways you can use twitter in your curriculum: **
(retrieved from: http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-with-twitter.html)

1. ‘Twit Board’ Notify students of changes to course content, schedules, venues or other important information.

 2. ‘Summing Up’ Ask students to read an article or chapter and then post their brief summary or précis of the key point(s). A limit of 140 characters demands a lot of academic discipline.

 3. ‘Twit Links’ Share a hyperlink – a directed task for students – each is required to regularly share one new hyperlink to a useful site they have found.

 4. ‘Twitter Stalking’ Follow a famous person and document their progress. Better still if this can be linked to an event (During the recent U.S. Presidential elections, many people followed @BarackObama and kept up to date with his speeches, etc).

 5. ‘Time Tweet’ Choose a famous person from the past and create a twitter account for them – choose an image which represents the historical figure and over a period of time write regular tweets in the role of that character, in a style and using the vocabulary you think they would have used (e.g. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 6. ‘Micro Meet’ Hold discussions involving all the subscribing students. As long as everyone is following the whole group, no-one should miss out on the Twitter stream. All students participate because a sequence of contributors is agreed beforehand.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 7. ‘Micro Write’ Progressive collaborative writing on Twitter. Students agree to take it in turns to contribute to an account or ‘story’ over a period of time.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 8. ‘Lingua Tweeta’ Good for modern language learning. Send tweets in foreign languages and ask students to respond in the same language or to translate the tweet into their native language.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 9. ‘Tweming’ Start off a meme – agree on a common hash-tag so that all the created content is automatically captured by Twemes or another aggregator.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 10. ‘Twitter Pals’ Encourage students to find a Twitter ‘penpal’ and regularly converse with them over a period of time to find out about their culture, hobbies, friends, family etc. Ideal for learning about people from other cultures.