Twitter Primer for Professors

UCEA today decided to e-mail all the professors in their organization (all professors of education leadership) about their new Twitter page and encouraged them to sign up. And, lots of folks did (Welcome all). But, now what? 

So, since I get asked a lot anyway about Twitter, I decided to do a little post as a primer for professors using Twitter. 

Getting Started:

1. You have already registered and picked out a name, that's excellent. Your name is important on twitter because that's how people talk to you (sort of like in real life, I guess). To talk to someone use their username proceeded by the @ symbol ... to talk to me on twitter, type @edjurist. 
2. Follow some people. First thing is to follow @UCEA. But, see who else is following UCEA and you might want to follow some of them too. The posts from all the folks that you follow will show up in your feed when you are logged in - so you get to see what they are thinking in real time. To get you started, I put some interesting folks for ed. leadership down below.  
3. Post something. It doesn't have to be interesting. Probably 60% of my posts are not interesting - but what's interesting is the culmination of those posts because you actually get to know people, how they think, what they work on, etc.
4. Read. Click Links. I promise there is a lot of interesting stuff out there if you are willing to listen. While there is a lot of fluff, it is super easy to scan to the posts that contain content that interests you. We are talking about tenths of a second here, so you can probably fit it in your schedule. If you are not getting enough interesting stuff, then you are not following enough people (return to step 2).  
5. Check back tomorrow. You'll probably have some "followers" (how much more leadership oriented can you be, right?). Followers want to hear what YOU have to say ... so, return to step 3.
6. Repeat. This only works if you use it. I have advice at the bottom for making it easier.   

What's this for, anyway? 

Most educators use twitter to develop their personal learning networks (PLN's for short). A PLN brings the world to you and, depending on who you put into your PLN, it is more effective than you trying to go out and get your own information. It's more informationally efficient, believe it or not. Sure you might get 100's of posts per day, but within minutes you scan to the 10-15 that are really important to you. That information you wouldn't have found without the PLN ... and so your PLN (using twitter and other tools) can make you smarter. 

Secondly, once enough people from a given network get on board, the PLN starts to innovate on its own. The conversations on twitter, or some other Web 2.0 location, start to spill over into other networks and even into real life. I have written articles and presented papers based off of conversations I had on blogs, for instance. It becomes an extension of the professional organization and helps to break down the barriers of time and space (didn't know this would be so heady, did you?).  

Third, meet people. Lots of you reading this post probably didn't know me. Now you do. You may be better or worse off for it, but chances are we wouldn't have bumped into each other at the UCEA conference. Knowing more people in the field is always good, right? For instance, UK might have a position or two this fall and obviously I am more interested in the people I know (I'm also more interested in people not afraid of technology). 

Who do I follow? 

It's your choice. I recommend starting out by following fellow professionals and educators. Lots of folks follow celebrities or sports stars, but you are too busy to care about their lives. However, there are already people on twitter that you do care about (yes, there are lots of folks I didn't include, sorry if I missed you, let me know) - 

Fellow Ed. Leadership Profs like: @mcleod, @jonbecker, @courosa, @pabaker55, @dquinn, @jnash

Then there are policy insiders like: @PoliticsK12, @alexanderrusso, @KChristieatECS, @BruceatECS, @DianeRav
 
And lots of Organizations like: @EducationSector, @NatEdAssoc, @ISTEGlobal, @NAESP, @NASSP, @ASCD, @NASBE, @ NSBAComm, @WestEdTweets, @AACTE

Then there are thousands of educational practitioners like: @NMHS_Principal, @karlfisch, @budtheteacher, @JasonFlom

And, your university is there too, along with colleagues - here are some of mine: @universityofky, @mollyhfisher, @STEMeducator, @lahenry96 

And, lots of local folks (Kentucky centered because that's where I live): @kycommissioner, @stusilbermanfc, @KCSSnews, @ksbanews  

Anyway, the point is there are people out there for you. 

Make Twitter Better! 

Once you use it and your sort of intruqued by it, make twitter better. The beauty of Web 2.0 is that it goes with you and the data can be seperated from the form. So, get twitter on your i-phone or blackberry. You'll want to check out Tweetdeck - makes it all easier. Learn the letters RT (stands for re-tweet) - if someone says something useful, retweet it to your followers by copying the post and putting RT: in front of it. You'll also want to know about URL shorteners, like bit.ly, tinyURL, snipURL, and others. Then, and this is down the road, Twitpic and Vidly are nice for multimedia. And, there are lots of other extensions (there is no end to this rabbithole). 

What's Next,  

Well, get a feel for twitter first. Its daunting at first, but in a week or so you'll understand it better and understand how it either can or can't be a learning tool for you. But, whether you like it or not, don't leave the Internet behind. There are also blogs, wikis, podcasts, videos, social networking, and stuff we haven't even invented yet that can directly help you. If your an ed. law prof., for example, I hope you find this site helpful, but also check out my friends that blog on ed. law issues. Just make it personal for you. There is a whole world of knowledge out there constantly streaming. Hope you can join the conversation!