This is the fourth step in my self paced online course to help teachers new to Twitter. The twitter tasks and projects can all be found on the Crowdsouring For Educators wiki.
Twitter is like a big old room full of people from around the world out in the virtual realm. It is an ongoing conversation designed to connect and enhance our lives. It is designed for us to speak and share with everyone so always remember everyone can hear you!
In order to have the conversations a few basic commands are needed to operate. We have already used some of these to get to this point.
Replies – This allows you to speak with one person specifically or potentially a few people in the conversation, but it is available for everyone to read and join in if they feel like it. This is not personal in the sense that nobody else can read what you share, but does allow you to connect with specific people in the conversation. To do this you would hit the reply button
When you hit the reply button you will see a new box open up to allow you type your response to that person. This is why it is always important to send Tweets of around 120 characters so there are spaces left for names and hashtags.
So, you just type your message and hit tweet. Remember, the only people that can see this exchange of tweets are people who are following YOU and the OTHER PERSON! They have to follow both for it to show up in their Twitter feed.
Retweet is designed to share an important idea. If you think someone has shared something good that you think your network of people needs to see then click retweet. You will get a box like before, but this time the message will be show. You will also see “RT” which means retweet so others know what you have done along with the person who created the original message.
We are also starting to see “MT” which means modified tweet where someone retweets, but changes the message slightly and sends it on. I don’t see this as much, but I have seen it more and more.
Your next option is Favorite. This allows you to bookmark your favorite tweets or keep an archive the ones you don’t want to lose in the Twitter Feeds. This is important during chats or other times when you know you want to get back to that link or resource at a later date.
What I have found in my experience and remember that everyone is different is that I still favorite tweets, but when I go to Twitter I spend more time catching up and I rarely get to my Favorites. I get too distracted. What I have begun to do is email myself my favorite tweets which I can then go back read and bookmark with Diigo(another tool I use in my PLN).
If you want to email a tweet to yourself or someone else you need to click where it says “More”
That will give you two options of email and embed. You click email and you type in the address you want to send it to. Embed will give you the code needed to embed that tweet into a blog post or website. I rarely use that feature, but it is a nice one to have. If there is a tweet I really want I will just screen capture it if you using for a presentation or post. Once again that is just a personal use and everyone is different.
Your jobs to complete for this task are to do the following. If you want the rest of us who are part of this project to see your work and help connect further, then use the hashtag #coffeechugPLN
1. Reply to a tweet and engage in a conversation. Offer your insights and knowledge and let the conversation develop.
2. Retweet a message that you think is worth sharing.
3. Favorite a message and see if you can find a locate your stream of favorite tweets(this is a bonus challenge)
4. Email yourself or someone a tweet to see how that option works
As always use the #coffeechugPLN to document your work so we can see how things develop for you.
I know many of you already know how to do all of this so perhaps it would be good for you to help those new to Twitter and following #coffeechugPLN to provide your knowledge and guidance.
If you have any tips and tricks about these basic commands leave a comment for me to share to the wiki page where this whole self paced course is being posted and shared.
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