We need to go where people are if we want to share with them. As well, we (as a school or district) need to consider how we are creating and building our positive digital footprint in the online environment
How do we use social media sites such as Twitter to help us share with community?
We have collected stories to help you consider how you might use these tools in your context.
Aviva is a model in engaging parents through the use of Twitter. Check out how she Tweets student learning throughout the day, then “Storifies” it for parents and adds her comments.
Follow Eric for endless tips and conversations about the importance of Digital Leadership in schools today.
Activities for Learning
What further examples of engaging parents and community through social media can you share? Please add your ideas using the comments section of this blog.
No matter what environment you are in, there are social protocols to figure out and abide by. The same goes for our online communities.
Twitter for education has protocols (or “norms”) that are not normally stated overtly, but that are important for maintaining professional relationships on the platform. In the list below, we have shared some of those protocols. Do you have more to add? Please feel free to share in the comments.
In general, it is important to remember that when education professionals are using Twitter to self-direct their personal professional learning, they want to find value in the time they are able to spend online.
Should I have different accounts for personal and professional tweeting?
This is a question that has been pondered on social media in the past.
Consider the purpose of your Twitter account. If you are tweeting with your class or school, you may want to consider an account for that role. If you are tweeting as an education professional separate from a specific group of students, you might think about it differently.
If you were at a social event with your peers, would you be the loud and obnoxious one in the room, constantly talking about yourself and how wonderful you are?
Don’t be that person on Twitter!
Of course everyone wants you to share, particularly on Twitter chats as you are answering the questions. However, something YOU have written on your blog is NOT the answer to every question! And while we are using capitals, capital letters mean “shouting” online, so you do not need to use them in all of your tweets!
It’s more important to think of Twitter as a place where you can add value rather than a place where you need to be noticed.
Shared by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano on slideshare.net
4. Respect the filters!
There is a massive amount of information flowing on Twitter. Learning to set up filters so that you can sort through that information and find things that are valuable to your practice is an important skill. Please respect the filters people are using and avoid tagging people on your photos and on your posts unless they have specifically asked for the information.
5. Self-proclaimed “Twitter Pros” usually are not – Pros that is!
Be a critical thinker about advice. Lurk on Twitter and watch. Just because someone claims to be a “pro” and know it all, doesn’t mean they actually do. Anyone can pretend to be anything on Twitter. Have a critical eye to what is true, and teach your students to do the same.
6. Relax and Be Yourself
You will connect with many wonderful people on Twitter. Many of these people will become your friends as you learn together, and you will meet many of them face-to-face. Authentic relationships do thrive online, for many of the same reasons they thrive in f2f environments.
Be who you are, share generously, give more than you receive.
Learning Activities
What suggestions can you add to this list? We welcome your suggestions in the blog comments.
This week, we asked folks in the @OSSEMOOC PLN to share a few examples of what they learn on Twitter.
Educators are very busy people. We think it is important to demonstrate the types of connections you can make very quickly, and the just-in time learning you can experience by leveraging your Twitter PLN.
6. Using Twitter to bust down language barriers. Check out our bilingual sharing on #ontedleaders for learning and sharing from our French-language colleagues. Use Google translate to participate!
What have you learned through Twitter this week?
Consider your answers to this question as we prepare for next week’s #OSSEMOOC Twitter chat.
How can we manage our Tweets on a mobile device? Here is an outline of how to use Hootsuite.
Today we are modelling the idea of using new tools for our work. All of our previous screencasts have been recorded using a free online tool – ScreenCast-O-Matic (in the professional version that currently costs $15.00 per year).
Today’s screencast was recorded on a mobile device using Explain Everything, a tool that is popular for student use. It is our first video made with this tool, so it isn’t perfect! But this is how we all learn!
So far in this course, we have been looking at Twitter tools through the Twitter.com website.
As we become interested in several different online conversations, and as we learn about quite a few different hashtags, we need better ways to organize our various Twitter streams.
Today we will look at one tool to help us do that on a laptop/desktop computer.
Tweetdeck can be accessed through the site or as a Chrome App.
Brandon Zoras continues his series of Twitter screencasts with a look at how Tweetdeck can be used to organize your Twitter feed on your laptop.
Twitter chats are becoming hugely popular among educators.
Twitter chats normally last for an hour. Questions for discussion are usually posted in advance and often there are 6 questions – one every 10 minutes. Participants post their answers to the questions and then engage in conversations with each other until the next question is posted.
Twitter chats allow for reflective practice and engaging in sharing and conversation with educators from around the world. Educators report that they get new ideas and new resources about education topics they are passionate about.
There are now Twitter chats for nearly every aspect of education, for example #edchat (international and fast-paced), #tlap (Teach Like a Pirate), #digcit (digital citizenship), #ntchat (new teachers), #satchat (Saturday morning education leadership chat), #ce15l (connected educators – What is Learning Anyway?).
Thanks to Brandon Zoras (@brandonzoras) who has demonstrated participation in Twitter chats in this screencast.
Here is the calendar of education chats that was mentioned in the video. There are many local Twitter chats not on this list, so watch your favourite Twitter hashtags for more chats, and retweet the announcements of chats to your followers.
#OSSEMOOC will host a Twitter chat about Twitter for Professional Learning on November 3, at 8 p.m. ET.
Today we have a few resources for you to explore as we begin to think about how we will use our Twitter account to share back to our PLN. The third week of this course is all about curation, so we will address the topic in much more detail at that time.
Today we will look at the mechanics of sharing with colleagues on Twitter.
Thanks to Brandon Zoras (@brandonzoras) for sharing another awesome screencast to help guide you in your learning.
Learning Activities
1) As we work toward becoming connected professional learners on Twitter, we need to consider the “big picture”, and how our new ways of learning will impact our work with our students. How does this article on Education 3.0 impact your thinking about becoming a connected educator? If this resonates with you, how can you share it on Twitter with your PLN?
2) What sites do you visit online for professional learning? You may want to read some of the blogs written by Ontario educators. The links can be found on the OSSEMOOC website. As you read, what resonates with you? What would you like to share with others? Is there an easy way to share the blog on Twitter? Can you add the Twitter handle of one of the educators on our class Twitter list to the Tweet? Add the #OSSEMOOC hashtag so others following this MOOC will see your tweet.
Resources:
For many more resources on this topic, please explore this OSSEMOOC post from last year.
Here at #OSSEMOOC we hope that your first two days of this mini-MOOC have helped you to see some of the potential of using Twitter as a source of professional learning. This year, there has been an explosion of Twitter chats, where educators are having online conversations about topics they are passionate about. Twitter chats often lead to further exploration of topics, on blogs, using Adobe Connect, Skype, Facetime or Google Hangout, on collaborative Google Docs/Slides or other collaborative platforms.
The most important idea is that we can collaborate with anyone, anywhere, anytime now. As we realize this, we begin to see the infinite potential for student learning.
Will our understanding of networked learning translate into networked learning for our students?
OSSEMOOC is a community (the “C” stands for Community, not Course – we don’t have a finish line), and we invite our Ontario Education Leaders to contribute to the learning of others through this platform*. Today, we thank Brandon Zoras (@brandonzoras) for contributing an awesome guide to the features of Twitter found on your Twitter profile page (twitter.com/yourtwitterhandle).
Twitter Basics
Mentions and Hashtags
Activities for Learning
What did you learn in these screencasts? Choose one bit of learning and share it on Twitter. Use the #ossemooc hashtag and #ontedleaders. Add the link to this site.
Help build the list of Ontario educators learning to use Twitter for self-directed learning. This list will remain open and continue to grow as other educators work through this course. Please add your Twitter handle here.
Using Twitter daily helps build confidence and capacity. How will you build Twitter into your daily routine? One way is to find Twitter challenges or Twitter chats where you become part of a social group sharing in social media. Currently, #OntEdLeaders are participating in this challenge, and a calendar of education chats can be found here.
*Contact us at ossemooc at gmail dot com if you would like to share your learning through blogging, screencasts, leading Twitter chats, contributing resources, or leading synchronous discussions.
The acronym actually stands for a few different possibilities: Personal Learning Network or Professional Learning Network. Whatever you call it, your PLN will become your “tribe”, your support, your challengers, your collaborators, your friends.
Shared under a creative commons BY-NC-SA licence by Paula Naugle
Our students live in a networked world, where understanding how to access information is a key digital literacy. If we build our understanding of how to learn in a networked environment, we are better able to make the decisions to help our students to do this as well.
How do we build a PLN?
Building a Professional/Personal Learning Network takes some time. You have to be willing to work on it each day. It’s a commitment to self-directing your own learning. We demonstrate here how even 10 to 15 minutes each day can make a huge difference in your practice.
The easiest way to begin connecting with people is on Twitter. Principals in Ontario have shared here why building their PLN on Twitter is so critical to their work.
Building your Twitter stream or “feed” involves finding interesting people to follow. You can find people to follow by:
a) asking others
b) viewing interesting tweets and following people as a result, particularly in Twitter Chats that align with your professional interests.
c) following those suggested to you on the Twitter site
e) participating in #FollowFriday (or #FF) – Twitter users suggest great people to follow each Friday
Shared by Tom Whitby on My Island View (click the picture for the full post)
Learning Activities:
1. Let’s help each other build a PLN.
Please take some time today to share a few (2-5) educators who add value to your PLN on Twitter. If you are new to Twitter, you can use this list to start building a rich feed very quickly.
2. We learn in and through practice. A great way to practice is to participate in a “Twitter Challenge”
#ontedleaders Twitter Challenge was posted on this site (see below) yesterday, and it can be found here. Use Google Translate if you need it. English versions are also posted on Twitter: #ontedleaders and #ossemooc
3. Build your cohort of learners. What can we learn together?
There are three events we want to draw your attention to today. These are excellent examples of self-directed professional learning, shared on Twitter.
a) K12 Online Conference begins today at 8 a.m. ET (watch the videos any time after that).
b) We are participating in the #ontedleaders Twitter Challenge, outlined here:
(We will translate for you. Today is: Share a picture that inspires you, and share why and how)
We invite you to play along. Post your Twitter Challenge responses with #ontedleaders and #ossemooc
Aviva is a model in engaging parents through the use of Twitter. Check out how she Tweets student learning throughout the day, then “Storifies” it for parents and adds her comments.
Twitter For Self-Directed Professional Learning 