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WHAT IS TWITTER?

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read short 140-character text messages, called "tweets".

QUICK TWITTER STRAW POLL

1. Who has never used Twitter?

2. Who has an account but rarely uses it?

3. How many of you use Twitter for personal / non-work related activity?

4. How many of you use Twitter for professional purposes – i.e. for your own research/professional interests? For your CPD purposes?

5. How many of you use Twitter in a learning and teaching capacity on your programmes / with your students?

6. Do your learners use Twitter? If so, how?

7. Do your colleagues use Twitter? If so, how?

EXPLAIN ‘WHY’ – SHARE YOUR REASONS?Where do you sit today? EXPLAIN in 140 characters!

Paper tweets

I have never used Twitter… WHY?

I have an account but rarely use it…

WHY?

I use Twitter for personal / non-work related reasons…

WHY DO YOU USE IT IN THIS WAY? WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF IT?

I use Twitter for professional purposes – i.e. for my own research/professional interests. For CPD purposes.

WHY DO YOU? HOW IS IT HELPFUL OR USEFUL? GIVE EXAMPLES.

I use Twitter in a learning and teaching capacity on my programmes / with my course team/students?

WHY DO YOU? HOW IS IT HELPFUL OR USEFUL? GIVE EXAMPLES.

WHAT’S MY TWITTER STORY SO FAR?

When did I start?Why did I start? Purposes?How did I use it in the

beginning?How do I use it now?What do I find most useful?What am I researching as a

result?

LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT MY TWITTER PROFILE

www.twitter.com @drkatyvigurs

What does this tell you about how I use Twitter for professional

education purposes?

WHAT DO I WANT TO TRY NEXT?

• Use Twitter with all my postgraduate groups – support learners to use it

• Run Twitter CPD workshops with my colleagues

• Host a live tweet chat per semester for research students (e.g. dissertation students on research design / research methods / ethics / academic writing etc.)

• Encourage learners to host live tweet chats for their modules

• Keep a Learning and Teaching blog and tweet links to blog regularly.

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? CONCERNS?

Work in pairs to come up with three questions /comments you want to raise.

These can be about my use of Twitter or the use of Twitter for learning and teaching purposes generally.

Let’s discuss.

OTHER STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY STAFF / SERVICES TO FOLLOW… (NOT EXHAUSTIVE!)@mikehamlyn

@Krislines

@Jim_Pugh

@DrJamieBarker

@pgwjones_dr

@Russell_Spink

@StaffsUni

@daveparkes

@StaffsUnion

They all use Twitter differently for professional purposes. Check out what they tweet and who they

follow.

YOUR TWITTER PROFILE

• Why does this matter?

• Photo?

• Research/professional interests stated?

• Professional role stated?

• Link to your blog / institutional website / LinkedIn profile?

• Look at other people’s profiles . Compare with yours.

• You can change it whenever you like. Keep it up to date.

WHO ARE YOU FOLLOWING?

How many people should you follow? Why does this matter? Relates to what you see in your Twitter feed.

Should you follow colleagues / wider university staff?

Are you following your students? Should you?

Are you following colleagues at other universities?

Are you following other research organisations / academics?

How can you find relevant people to follow? What strategies?

Why would you ‘unfollow’ people? Can you re-follow them again?

WHO’S FOLLOWING YOU?

Does it matter who is following you and how many followers you have? Relates to who will see your tweets and retweets (RT).

Blocking people & spotting spammers

Direct messaging (DM) – sending private messages – remember ‘normal’ tweets are completely public (let this guide what you do and don’t say/share)

Does it matter if people unfollow you?

How to interact with new followers?

Do you have to ‘follow back’?

INTERACTING WITH OTHER ‘TWEETERS’Replying or responding to someone else’s tweets

Contacting another tweeter publicly – wanting to directly get someone’s attention

How do you know if someone has contacted/mentioned you or sent you a DM?

Using hashtags in your tweets so that a wider audience can access your tweets e.g. #phdchat #phdforum #acwri #socphd

Searching hashtags to see what’s been happening e.g. #EdDSU6 #EDDPU #BERAypandclass – good way of archiving tweets

LEARNING & TEACHING HASHTAGS (THERE ARE LOADS!)

#edchat#blendchat (blended learning)#elearning#pbl/#pblchat #gbl (game-based learning)#edtech (education technology)#ukedchat#edtech#flipclass#highered#loveHE

FAVOURITES AND EMAILING TWEETS

How do people use ‘Favourite’ button (star icon)?

How can you ‘save’ or ‘keep’ useful tweets? The email function.

WHEN DO YOU CHECK/USE TWITTER? WHEN DO OTHERS?In UK most people check between 7.00-8.30am,

10.00-11.00, 2.00-3.00, after 7.00pm.

Different in other countries. Different time zones.

Some people send the same tweet 4-5 times in a day. Why?

Should you bear timings in mind when sending tweets?

TWEETING FOR LEARNING & TEACHING?

Identify how you could use Twitter for professional and/or learning and teaching purposes.

Everyone needs to come up with at least 1 idea.

What would you need to do to make this happen? What actions needed?

Staffordshire Graduate Attributes

Description – Consider whether the use of Twitter could be relevant?

Discipline Expert

Have an understanding of the forefront of knowledge

Professional Be work-ready and employable, and understand importance of being enterprising and entrepreneurial

Global Citizen

Have an understanding of global issues

Communication & Teamwork

Be an effective communicator and presenter – and be able to interact appropriately and confidently with a range of colleaguesHave developed the skills of independence of thought and, where appropriate, social interaction through teamwork

Reflective & Critical

Have the ability to carry out inquiry-based learning and critical analysisBe a problem solver and creator of opportunities

Life Long Learner

Be technologically, digitally and information literateBe able to apply Staffordshire Graduate attributes to a range of life experiences – to facilitate life-long learning and life-long success