Here is everything you need to know about using Twitter in education
Over the last year and a half I have written a number of blog posts, teaching magazine articles and spoken at a number of conferences about how to use Twitter in education. I thought that rather than having my material spread out throughout my blog I would bring it all together in this one blog post.
You can follow the links which will walk you through how to set up a Twitter account as well as how to use Twitter in a way that doesn’t compromise your professional relationship with your students.
Here are the 5 things you should know or do…
1. Decide if Twitter is right for you and your students
Many teachers see other teachers using Twitter and hear stories about how great Twitter in education is but there are a few statistics about Twitter in education that you might like to look at before jumping in.
If you are interested in some statistics about the use of Facebook in education, you can have a look at this post.
2. Consider your school’s social media policy.
You need to consider your school’s social media policy. If you don’t have one, then you should write one. It doesn’t have to be long and drawn out but rather a practical guide to what is allowed and why. In THIS POST I explain what needs to be in your school’s social media policy and show you a website that will give you lots of great examples for you to look at.
3. Set your account up the right way to protect yourself and your students
There have been a number of teachers who have found themselves in trouble because they have used (or been accused of using) social media inappropriately. Every teacher should be concerned about how to set up their twitter account the right way so that you won’t compromise your professional relationship with your students. After all, it only takes a student to accuse a teacher of behaving inappropriately for that teacher’s career to be in ruins.
4. Know how to find other teachers and resources of interest
There is no shortage of ‘noise’ on Twitter! Many people don’t realise that you don’t have to follow lots of people and read every tweet in order to find some buried treasure. This post will show you 4 simple tips for using Twitter in education without becoming overwhelmed.
5. Get a jump start on knowing what Hashtags in Twitter are education specific
If you take a look at point three above you will learn how to use Twitter Hashtags effectively. This post has a number of Twitter in education hashtags that are subject specific.
If you would like to connect with me on twitter go to my profile and click follow.
Feel free to share this guide with as many teachers as you like. You can use all the social media tools below this post.
