1.1 Twitter

We're going to start things off with an introduction to one of the most popular social media tools. We want to begin with Twitter Links to an external site.so that those interested in using it for the Google Hangouts with our course guests will have a basic knowledge of the tool prior to the first Hangout, which is this week.

It is NOT a requirement of this course that you have a Twitter account.

Twitter has become popular among educators Links to an external site. for connecting with colleagues, sharing resources and even for use in class as a way of creating a "back channel" for learners. Business and other organizations are using Twitter for promotion and to communicate with customers / clients.

There are some basic terms that you should learn before using Twitter. These are all covered in the readings in more detail so we're just going to give you a quick overview.

A "tweet" is a post to Twitter. Tweets can only be 140 characters or less.

If you're sending a public tweet to someone directly, start your tweet with @ and their user name. For example, to send a public tweet to Heather you would start the tweet with @mctoonish Links to an external site. (her Twitter user name). For Ryan, you would start your tweet with @rbanow Links to an external site.. If you just want to mention them in the tweet, put their user name elsewhere in the tweet or start with a period before the @ (i.e. .@mctoonish for everyone to see the tweet).

E.g., tweet to someone:

E.g., tweet mentioning another person:

A retweet is when you share a Tweet that someone else has posted.

A "hashtag" is a way of labeling a message for a particular topic. Heather's tweet about working on a great project above includes the hashtag #ilt_usask. A hashtag has been created for this course to make it easy to follow along with any Twitter conversations related to the course. If you tweet about this course, please include #ilt_usask as part of your tweet.

A DM is a direct message. This is how you would send a private message via Twitter to another user. For you to send them a DM they must be one of your Twitter followers. For them them to replay, you must be one of their followers.

To learn more about Twitter, please complete the readings below.

Readings

• Twitter New User FAQs Links to an external site.
• Mom, This is How Twitter Works Links to an external site.
• 10 Commandments of Twitter for Academics Links to an external site.