Twitter

__What is Twitter__?
Twitter is a social networking and microblogging web service. You can send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters long. You can also attach images and video clips to your tweets. media type="youtube" key="ddO9idmax0o?version=3" height="234" width="384"

__Reasons for Use__
1) To connect with other teachers around the world. 2) Engage in discussions 3) Collect resources, materials, information 4) Share pertinent and time-based information to change teaching practice(s)

__Ease of Use__
Go to http://twitter.com to sign up for a Twitter account. Make sure to keep your Twitter handle (name) short enough so that you have more room for your everyday tweets!

How to Engage on Twitter
1) Quality not quantity - follow people who you know or whose tweets you like. A great way to start is reading the conversations from #edchat on Tuesdays at 10:00am MST and 5pm MST. [|Video] (first 2 minutes). 2) Find your twitter voice through a book study, tweeting key points form an article or blog you've read. Say what you're working on with staff/teachers. Send out quotes, opinions and questions. 3) Set up a twitter client for your computer desktop like Tweetdeck. On a smartphone there are various apps like Ubertwitter, FlipBoard, Tweetie, etc.

__Resources__
What is Twitter? for [|Administrators] video (6 mins)

__Examples__
media type="custom" key="4176103" [|Twitter history] as seen on TED [|Twitter Experiment at UT Dallas] - phenomenal example of how to use Twitter in the classroom. [|Twitter in High School] - short 2 mins news clip; engaging students. media type="custom" key="4162171"