"I Finally Got Twitter!"

​Last week I had the opportunity to work with teachers in Paradise, California.  I had some incredible sessions focusing on how to use Images and Visual Literacy in any classroom. 

But along with the session itself, we had some short conversations about how to use Twitter in education. I felt that even in a few minutes I got some teachers to think differently about this tool and possibly want to give it a try. 

So... I put together a few steps which you can use to convince others, or even yourself, on how to use Twitter as an Educator.

#1) DON'T START BY CREATING AN ACCOUNT! 
Did you know that you can use Twitter without an account? This will reduce the barrier of entry for some and get them into HOW to use it and SEE the relevancy before going the steps of creating an account. 
Go to twitter.com/search   

#2) Type in a hashtag
​The power of Twitter is in finding relevant and meaningful information. Since it is a constant stream of people sharing, Twitter can be overwhelming. Therefore its important for educators to learn about the hashtags. These help to identify and tag messages on a specific topic. Check out below some of the popular hashtags which educators use to focus their search. ​Here is a list of many more educational hashtags from Alan November @globalearner

#3) Open Some Links
Scroll through many of the posts and look for ones where people are sharing links. Open these up in new tabs but don't spend any time really looking at these for now. Finish browsing through Twitter until you found about 5 links to check out later. ​

And really, that's it! Three Steps. Now, you can do more, but focusing on just these steps can get anyone to see the world of personalized learning that Twitter allows. 

Oh... and one last point... remember this comparison about Twitter and Archaeology: