TWITTER NOTES & TIPS Steve Bergen Last revised 7/24/09

The Basics

• Twitter provides some of us with the easiest possible way to have public info on a Web page that is either open to everyone or open to just those who have been approved
• Twitter helps with the 3 Rs of research, review and relationship
• When you type a note of 140 bytes or fewer in the box and click UPDATE, it will appear simultaneously on the HOME page of all of those who follow you; other people who don't follow you can see this update if they choose proactively to go to your TWITTER PAGE (assuming you do not choose to keep your account private)
• It is not easy to find the TWITTER NAMES of other people. It is generally best if someone "tells you" or "emails you" her/his twitter name.
• If the TWITTER NAME is Alice, then after you login to your Twitter account, you can go to www.twitter.com/Alice and can choose to FOLLOW if desired or just read what is on his or her page (unless the person has protected his/her page)
• For example, someone named Alan can protect his updates so you see nothing when you go to http://www.twitter.com/alan unless you are following him.
• To create a community amongst 26 people, each person MUST choose to follow the other 25 people.

The Power of 140

• Trying to write meaningful, quality sentences in 140 characters or less is a nice intellectual challenge. (105 characters)
• Learning to write concise sentences is a skill. (47 characters)
• Using Twitter to collect useful Web sites and share ideas and knowledge to enhance the learning experience in a class. (119 characters)
• Having students record homework reactions on their twitter accounts leaves a useful powerful audit trail of their work with exact dates, times and thoughts. (133 characters)
• Having students take notes on Twitter during class can be effective in many ways: reviewing at the end of class and providing an easy way after class to recall key info. (139 characters)

Twitter Tidbits and Useful Links

• To easily find and follow the most popular Twitter users in a number of categories, go to wefollow.com
• Other Twitter directories include twellow.com or justtweetit.com
• Click here for 100 Serious Twitter Tips for Academics
• Click here for K-3 Teachers Guide to Twitter
• There is a SEARCH BUTTON at the botton of the main Twitter page. You can type location:cityname with a city of your choice
• If you type "D " followed by the person's Twitter name (e.g. D LarryBird) in the message at the beginning then the TWEET is a Direct Message and goes to that ONE person only, no one else. Don't forget the space after the "D" before the Twitter name. You can send Direct Messages just to your followers; you cannot direct message a person who does not follow you.
• RT means "Re-Tweet." This can be helpful when you want to share another Twitter users post by citing that user as the original author while sharing this post with your followers.
• Tweets starting with @username are replies, and tweets with @username elsewhere are considered mentions (this comes from the Twitter help page) ... click here or or here for attempts to clarify some of the confusion that exists regarding the @ symbol; most people agree that If you include @Alice in your tweet, it will go to all of your followers and Alice as well whether or not she follows you
• The # symbol is called a "hashtag" ... by including #summercore or #iran or #boston you provide a better way for people to search. Click here for a Web site of twitter hashtags
• Twitter tips? Click here
• 25 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom ... click here
• How Twitter was Started ... click here for the full story ... here is an excerpt

  The first version of @Jack's idea was entirely web-based. It was created on March 21st, 2006. @Jack was still just an engineer, and the service was only a few months old when the group acquired Twitter.com and re-branded. Back then, we had no character limit on our system. Messages longer than 160 characters (the common SMS carrier limit) were split into multiple texts and delivered (somewhat) sequentially. There were other bugs, and a mounting SMS bill. The team decided to place a limit on the number of characters that would go out via SMS for each post. They settled on 140, in order to leave room for the username and the colon in front of the message. In February of 2007 @Jack wrote something which inspired me to get started on this project: "One could change the world with one hundred and forty characters."

• posted on ISED March 2010 ...On Twitter, look for the hashtags #ff or #followfriday for suggestions on who to follow Another is #TeacherTuesday ... A great list to start with is here: http://tweepml.org/EdTech-Links/ ... Check out the wiki: http://twitter4teachers.pbworks.com/ ... You can find educators in all categories there to follow - add yourself too! ... Christina DiMicelli Technology Integration specialist Hampstead Academy Hampstead, NH ... dimicelli AT hampsteadacademy.org