Teaching Twitter, Connecting with Families During the Summer, and Learning from Student Evaluations... in Education Today

If you are interested in these topics--teaching Twitter, connecting to families, and/or learning from student evaluations of your teaching--then you will find useful ideas in these blog posts.

The Art of Twitter / mkhmarketing / CC BY 2.0

Online Teaching and Twitter: Beyond the Basics
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/online-teaching-and-twitter-beyond-the-basics/

Melissa A. Venable, PhD
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/about/

Venable shares great ideas for introducing Twitter to educators. These strategies can be modified for other students, also.

Connect / http://www.gotcredit.com/ / CC BY 2.0

8 Digital Resources To Stay Connected to Families This Summer
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2015/05/8-digital-resources-to-stay-connected.html

Lisa Nielsen
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

Nielsen recommends using social media tools to stay connected with families this summer. She provides many good examples. Which tool will work best for you?

Amazing Teachers / Bunches and Bits (Karina) / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Here Are Forms Students Will Be Using To Evaluate The Class & Me
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2015/05/16/here-are-forms-students-will-be-using-to-evaluate-the-class-me/

Larry Ferlazzo
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/

I have always learned so much from the evaluation forms I ask my students to complete at the end of a course. It is interesting--and instructive--to read Ferlazzo's reactions to his students' evaluations and to see an example of an evaluation form he designed and used.

Using Twitter Lists

Faces / Pixabay / CC0

Why do I use Twitter lists?

Twitter (https://twitter.com/?lang=en) is a great tool for professional development. It leads me to educators who are passionate about helping others learn. It lets me know when good teaching and learning ideas are available to examine.

The flow of information from Twitter is sometimes referred to as a firehose... with good reason. After you have used Twitter for a while the list of folks that you follow grows. And the number of tweets from them becomes quite large. I found that I was missing the tweets of some of the creative leaders from whom I have learned so much in the past due to the large number of tweets flowing through my firehose... that is, my timeline.

I was a bit familiar with Twitter lists and thought that extending my use of them would help. I was right.

What is a Twitter list?

Twitter defines a list as a "curated group of Twitter users." So, if I follow 100 folks on Twitter and 60 of them are creative, passionate educators, then I can group those 60 together in one Twitter list.

How does grouping these accounts together in a single list help? I can choose to view the tweets from this select group of educators without being distracted by tweets from other accounts. I am less likely to miss ideas from folks whose ideas are so very helpful and useful as I work with students and with other educators.

Tweet / Pixabay / CC0

What actions are available for working with lists?

I can create lists (or delete them), add or remove individuals from my lists, subscribe to lists others have created. My lists can be public or private. I can share a list with others via Twitter (or my website or blog).

I can send tweets to individuals on a list, but not to the entire list at once. I can add Twitter users to a Twitter list even if I do not follow them individually. If I want to follow some accounts for information only—perhaps about a one-time event or news story—I can just add them to a list rather than follow them.

Group / Pixabay / CC0

How can Twitter lists help?

For me, the most important thing that lists do is make it possible for me to view more of my tweets. I'm not missing as many as I did previously. After all, the easiest way to complete a big job myself is to break it down into a series of small jobs. (How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.) That's what lists do for me.

What lists might help you? Some lists you could consider are...

• your team or department or grade level or school

• conferences attendees

• Twitter chat participants

• folks with whom you have common interests

• resources for other teachers or your students or parents

• individuals you recommend that others follow

• "notice me" list... folks with whom you want to develop a working relationship

• thought leaders in education or other fields in which you have an interest

• folks you would like to recognize

• your affiliations

• friends and family

• news... general or specific

Learn / Pixabay / CC0

How do I...?

Create a list... 
Go to your profile page > Lists > Create new list > name the list (max of 25 characters) > provide a description (max of 100 characters) > choose private (for your eyes only) or public (anyone can subscribe) > save list

Add or remove individuals from a list...
Go to the user's profile > gear icon > add or remove from lists (don't have to also follow) > check or uncheck lists to add or remove

Determine if an individual is on a specific list...
Go to your profile page > Lists > click the list you are interested in > click Members to determine if the person is in that list

Determine if I am on a specific list...
Go to your profile page > Lists > click on Member of

Share a list with someone...
Go to that list > copy the URL in your browser's address field > paste the URL in a message to the person with whom you would like to share the list

View tweets from a list...
Go to your profile page > Lists > click on the list
 
Edit or delete lists...
Go to your profile page > Lists > select the list your want to edit or delete > edit or delete

Subscribe to (follow) someone else's list...
Go to that member's profile > Lists > select list > click Subscribe

See who subscribes to my Twitter lists...
Visit the list > click "List Subscribers"

See what lists I am a member of...
Go to your profile page > Lists > Member of

Why was I added to a Twitter spam list? 
Twitter now allows more members per list and more lists per members, so spammers are trying to use that to their advantage


Do you have other questions?
Go to I'm Having Trouble with Lists at https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169276-i-m-having-trouble-with-lists#

Are you ready to try some advanced suggestions?

• Use a software tool to help you manage your Twitter lists:

• Commun.it... http://commun.it/
• Manage Flitter... https://manageflitter.com/
• SocialBro... http://www.socialbro.com/
• Tweepi... http://tweepi.com/
• Twitilist... http://www.twitilist.com/
• Twitlistmanager... http://twitlistmanager.com/

• Use a software tool to help you view the tweets from your lists—I use TweetDeck (https://about.twitter.com/products/tweetdeck)
Include yourself in lists you create (so folks viewing your list include you in that category)... see Twitter Lists - How to Add Yourself to a List You Created
• Follow up with direct messages (thank you or a link to your website) when you're added to someone else's list
• Upload your Twitter list to Flipboard (https://flipboard.com/)... a visual way to see content from your list members

_____________________________________________

What resources did I use for this post?

Twitter's Help Center...
https://support.twitter.com/

Using Twitter Lists
https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460-using-twitter-lists#
 
Create and Use Twitter Lists
https://media.twitter.com/best-practice/create-and-use-twitter-lists

Get Organized: How to Create and Use Twitter Lists
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459110,00.asp

23 Seldom-Used Ideas for How to Use Twitter Lists
https://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-lists
Outstanding article!

Twitter Lists are the New "Follow"
http://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-lists-new-follow/

Twitter Lists - How to Add Yourself to a List You Created
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3yd1QJpaxo
 
Why You Were Added to Twitter Spam Lists
http://mashable.com/2013/09/18/twitter-spammers-lists/

How To: Remove Yourself From Stupid Twitter Lists
http://askaaronlee.com/how-to-remove-yourself-from-stupid-twitter-lists/

Nine Tools for Journalists to Cut Twitter List Creation and Management Time
http://knightlab.northwestern.edu/2014/12/19/nine-tools-for-journalists-to-cut-twitter-list-creation-and-management-time/ 
Reviews of third-party tools to use with Twitter, including Twitter lists

How to Use Twitter Lists Like a Pro
http://daveadelaney.com/how-to-use-twitter-lists-like-a-pro/

How to Use Twitter Lists for Business
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/use-twitter-lists-business/

5 Great Ideas to Unleash Business Benefits from Twitter Lists
http://www.businessesgrow.com/2013/07/25/unleashing-the-business-potential-of-twitter-lists/

3 Act Tasks in the Classroom

Wooden Chest / Brenda Clarke / CC BY 2.0

Do you know the formula for the volume of a rectangular prism? As a mathematics teacher I was not concerned with my students’ memorizing the formula because we could just figure it out when we needed it. But it has been a few years (OK… it’s been a long time!) since I taught volume in my classroom. So, I decided to check out a video that I found on Twitter. The video was created by Kyle Pearce, a mathematics teacher in Ontario.

Pearce uses Keynote presentation software with animations to illustrate why the volume of a rectangular prism is determined with the formula V = lwh. His use of animations is not fluff but instead it enhances the explanation. The result is a video that is professional in style, simple to follow, and—most importantly—effective in helping students to understand the concept.

I explored his site a bit and then followed a link to his video about the volume of a cylinder. It’s interesting and useful… just as the first video is.  While there I found a link to Dan Meyer’s Hot Coffee 3 Act Math Task. This task is interesting to me… and it would be interesting to students. Is it a word problem? Yes. But this task is real. And it will seem so to students.

It's Easy As... / Mike Kniec / CC BY 2.0

I definitely needed to learn more about 3 Act Math Tasks, so I visited Meyer’s website to look for a good explanation of 3 Act Math Tasks. I found his description of The Three Acts of a Mathematical Story. And Teaching with Three-Act Tasks… with links to all three acts. He also publishes his task bank of 3 Act Math Tasks on his site. Lots of good resources to learn about and to use while you start experimenting with creating your own 3 Act Math Tasks.

When I returned to Pearce’s site I discovered that he also shares a list of 3 Act Tasks that he has created.

_________________________

So what lessons can be learned from my explorations at these sites?

1. Rich teaching resources can be found through Twitter,
2. Many members of your PLN may freely share excellent ideas and resources,
3. Storytelling can be effectively used in classrooms,
4. Keynote (and other presentation software) can be used to create helpful videos for students, and--most importantly--
5. The lesson plans from Pearce and Mayer are designed for mathematics classrooms; however, these ideas are not limited to mathematics education. The 3 Act Math Tasks storytelling strategy could be effectively used in history, language arts, science, and many other classes.
6. And, of course, Twitter, your PLN, and presentation software can all be used well in other classes.

Have you tried creating a 3 Act History Task or a 3 Act Language Arts Task? Or something similar in your classroom?

_________________________

Resources from this post...

Kyle Pearce
@MathletePearce
https://twitter.com/MathletePearce
http://tapintoteenminds.com/
tapintoteenminds.com/2014/09/05/visualizing-the-volume-of-a-rectangular-prism-formula/
 
Dan Meyer
@ddmeyer
https://twitter.com/ddmeyer
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2011/the-three-acts-of-a-mathematical-story/

Drones, Research, Twitter, and Blogs... Teaching Tools!

Shoulders of Giants / Cody Erekson / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

As an educator I enjoy creating activities, lessons, and curriculum to help my students learn. Sometimes I borrow ideas from others. Nowadays it is so much easier to learn from other educators because we can use blogs, wikis, and Twitter to share and to borrow.

Here are some resources I discovered recently from some of the blogs I follow...

We are familiar with seeing other locations via Google's street views. Now we can visit some locations around the world from a drone's perspective. Mashable shares information about this site at Interactive Map Site Lets You Travel the World Through the Lenses of Drones. You can try it yourself at Travel By Drone and explore on your own. Today I traveled to Paris, France; Queensland, Australia; and Pittsburgh and Detroit in the USA! This looks like a useful (and fun) site for both teachers and students.

When I introduce ideas and techniques new to workshop participants I like to support what I teach with research as well as with anecdotes and personal experience. Larry Ferlazzo frequently shares research studies, so I am pleased to see that he is now writing a "round-up" of these studies every week or so. See his Research Studies of the Week post. This will be a valuable resource.

Vicki Davis' post Twitter: Best Practices for Educators #ReinventingWriting
on Edudemic includes apps, hashtags, and tips for using Twitter in the classroom. Davis' useful tips are based on research and personal experience. I think I will have to determine my Twitter "magic number" to figure out the maximum length my tweets should be! In fact, I will include several ideas that I learned from this post in my workshops.

And, finally, two posts about blogging on the LangWitches blog caught my eye: Blogging as Pedagogy: Facilitate Learning and And You Thought It Could Not Be Done: Blogging in Math. Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano writes two excellent posts about blogging in the classroom. In my opinion you do not need to be a teacher of language arts or mathematics to benefit from reading these two posts! Tolisano writes that "blogging can be a strategy to facilitate learning" and then goes on to detail how educators can use blogging... not as a one-time activity or project... but as a basic strategy in our teaching toolboxes. These two posts are must reads!

I appreciate that educators support each other... and that it has become easier to stand on the shoulders of giants.

Using Twitter as an Educator

Many educators today use Twitter professionally and/or personally. Professional use usually includes two categories: (1) enhancing teaching and learning in the classroom and (2) professional development.

The Four Stages of Getting on Twitter Infographic / Roba Al-Assi / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I am selecting resources to add to a Twitter (and other social media) unit for an upcoming summer workshop (see the last four weeks' posts and here and here and here) to help the workshop participants understand the value and benefits of using Twitter for professional development and in the classroom. I searched for appropriate resources for this unit... and found some guides and tips to add to my current materials. Because I taught a similar unit in a course this spring I want to add just a few outstanding resources to what I already use.

The workshop materials for Twitter that I chose fit these categories:

• guides for teachers,
• classroom uses,
• tips, and
• suggestions about students.

WTJ-Doodle over THE INSTRUCTIONS page / Arthur T. Bens / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Guides for Teachers and Classroom Uses

• The Twitter Guide for Teachers
• 2013… overview of use including classroom ideas and videos
• http://elearningindustry.com/the-twitter-guide-for-teachers

• An Educators Guide to Twitter
• 2010… by Steven W. Anderson… lots of information about Twitter for beginners and for experienced users
• http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=34291

• Teachers Guide to Twitter
• 2012… written for K-3 teachers but appropriate for others… designed for beginners… walks teachers through the early steps of using Twitter as an educator
• http://www.k-3teacherresources.com/teachers-guide-to-twitter.html#.U4f_gvbUWuE

• Twitter 101 for Educators9
• 2009… good beginning advice… walks teachers through the early steps of using Twitter as an educator
• http://www.examiner.com/article/twitter-101-for-educators

• The Teacher's Guide To Twitter
• 2013… good for newbies and experienced… I learned!
• http://www.edudemic.com/guides/guide-to-twitter/

I'll Give YOU a Tip / Rachael Voorhees / CC BY 2.0

Tips

• 7 Effective Ways to Engage on Twitter Infographic
• 2013… good advice
• http://elearninginfographics.com/effectively-use-twitter-infographic-teacher-guide-to-twitter/

• How Do You Search for Information on a Topic?
• 2014… Twitter is part of my search strategy
• http://www.teachinginadigitalworld.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-do-you-search-for-information-on.html

• Way Too Many People Make These 4 Twitter Mistakes
• 2014... useful tips
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/way-many-people-make-4-twitter-mistakes/

• 30 Education Innovators Worth Following On Twitter
• 2014... Twitter links for Forbes' list of "30 under 30" in education
• http://www.edudemic.com/education-innovators-twitter/

Student iPad 014 / Brad Flickinger / CC BY 2.0

Suggestions about Students

• On Twitter: To Follow or Not to Follow
• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/follow-not-follow-twitter-nicholas-provenzano
• 2012… good advice for following/not following students

_______________

Will I use ALL these resources in the workshop? Most likely not. However resources that do not become part of the workshop activities may find themselves in a list provided for the participants to access on their own during the workshop or later.

These sites should help facilitate some interesting and useful discussions. How do you help other educators discover the benefits of using Twitter?

How Do You Search for Information on a Topic?

Search! / Jeffrey Beall / CC BY-ND 2.0

Searching for information on the web seems so easy nowadays. The abundance of sites available provides all we need or want to know. Or so it seems.

But are we finding the best sites? And are we being efficient with our time?

I used to use a search engine to search for key terms in the topic that I was researching. Period. That worked well then, but today I would use miss much good information if I limited myself to that technique.

Today when I research a topic I use these resources… in this order:

1. my bookmarking site for my bookmarks and those of others
2. curated information published by others interested in the same topic
3. blogs by folks I follow who often write about my topic
4. Twitter comments
5. the web as accessed by search engine(s)

Why?

As ideas flow through my daily work process I bookmark those that I think will prove helpful for upcoming courses or workshops or that relate to areas of personal interest. Those bookmarks often get me off to a running start. While at my bookmarking site I also check the bookmarks of the folks I follow on that site. I follow only a few folks there… individuals that I’ve seen post frequently in areas in which I’m interested. And I check the bookmarks of the whole community at that site. If someone else thinks a website has relevant information about the topic I’m researching then it’s worth investigating. Why should I re-invent the wheel?

In the past year my knowledge about and respect for curated information has grown. I have found curation tools that help me curate and that point me toward curated materials published by others on topics that interest me. Using these tools I review information that others have found… and I also do a search with curation tools for current information to add.

I follow some excellent bloggers. They amaze me with their knowledge and their creativity. And they are a rich source of information. I would be foolish not to use what they have shared.

Twitter is a rich source of information on many topics. A variety of tools and techniques helps me search Twitter for leads to useful sources for my topic.

These methods help me to be efficient in my use of time as I prepare to teach or write about a topic. Standing on the shoulders of giants… or just everyday folks with the same passions for learning and sharing that I have… helps me learn more quickly and provides a perspective that working alone I might miss. So, at this point I am ready to use a search engine on the web to complement the work I’ve already done.


A Little More Detail About…

Bookmark / Jerzy Durczak / CC BY-NC 2.0

Bookmarks

I use some bookmarks everyday… and others to support my research in various areas for teaching, writing, and speaking. I want the everyday bookmarks in sight and the research bookmarks easily accessible.

My solution? I use a launch page for the everyday stuff. I set each of the browsers I use at home and at work to use that page as its home page. And the computers I use that are located in labs or at a friend’s home? In those locations I can easily access my launch page, Skloog.com, on the web.

For research bookmarks I use Delicious. I can tag and—if I choose—annotate my bookmarks. I can search bookmarks others have posted. And I can follow other folks who post interesting and useful bookmarks. Most of my 6,000+ links are public, but a few are private. I follow a small number of users and a few follow me.

I think these are some of the best sites for organizing launch page bookmarks…

• My Faves
• My Link Cloud
• Netvibes
• Skloog

If you are not yet using a bookmarking site, you might want to investigate some of the many available ones. The following list includes the sites I’ve seen recommended the most and that I have investigated. Of these I have used Delicious, Diigo, Evernote, LiveBinders, Pinterest, Pocket, StumbleUpon, and Symbaloo either for bookmarking or other purposes.

• Delicious
• Diigo
• Evernote
• GimmeBar
• Google Bookmarks
• Historio.us
• Instapaper
• Kippt
• LiveBinders
• Mr. Wong
• PDFmyURL
• Pearltrees
• Pinboard
• Pinterest
• Pocket
• Readability
• Simplenote
• Springpad
• StumbleUpon
• Symbaloo
• Xmarks
• Zoho Notebook

Curation

Junction C / Kivi Leroux Miller / CC BY-NC 2.0

During the past year I have begun using more curation tools. Initially I used them as a place to store information I found and wanted to keep so I could use it later. Actually my bookmarks on Delicious allowed me to do that. But my bookmarks are just the first step in curating, namely gathering. By using a curation tool to select, annotate, order, and create a coordinated unit I made my collection more useful… to myself and to others. At that point I decided that these curation tools could be used effectively as sites that I share with my students when teaching. Rather than post my content within a course or workshop site I could make its storage more generic by storing it with a curation tool. That also eliminates some of the restrictions (e.g., frames) of content management systems. I have experimented with several curation tools and found that some were more useful for me than others. During this experimentation phase I became more confident in the ability of these tools to also find valuable information to curate. Using some of these curation tools is like having a personal assistant!

Some of my favorite curation tools are:

• Evernote
• LiveBinders
• Pinterest
• Scoop.it!
• Storify

Blogs and Bloggers 

Blog Icon / photologue_np / CC BY 2.0

I follow some outstanding blogs and bloggers. Some I have followed for years; others are recent additions. I’m hesitant to list the “very best” because I’m bound to accidentally miss listing someone that I should have included. So, let’s just say that the following list—in alphabetical order--includes some of the blogs that I follow and access when I’m researching. Since these folks frequently write on topics of interest to me, it’s worth creating a Google custom search. (I also include an old blog of mine on this list in addition to my current blog so that my searches include what I have written about topics I am researching.)

• http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/
• http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/my-best-of-series/
• http://mglearns.wikispaces.com/space/content
• http://modernlessons.com/
• http://sdst.libguides.com/
• http://sdst.libguides.com/content.php?pid=192765&sid=1616356
• http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/
• http://www.coolcatteacher.com/
• http://www.cybraryman.com/
• http://www.educatorstechnology.com/
• http://www.edudemic.com/
• http://www.edutopia.org/
• http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
• http://www.graphite.org/
• http://www.keystotheweb.com/
• http://www.lsr7.org/its/
• http://www.makeuseof.com/
• http://www.microsoft.com/education/ww/products/windows-8/Pages/windows-apps.aspx
• http://www.ohiorc.org/
• http://www.rec.ohiorc.org/
• http://www.schrockguide.net/
• http://www.shmoop.com/
• http://www.speedofcreativity.org/
• http://www.teachersfirst.com/index.cfm
• http://www.theedvantage.org/
• http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com/
• http://www.weareteachers.com/homepage
• http://teaching21c.blogspot.com/
• http://teachinginadigitalworld.blogspot.com/

Google Custom Search information is available at http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/11/google-custom-search/ and https://www.google.com/cse/create/new

I created a Google Custom Search Engine for these blogs and posted it on a private blog. (That private blog is also my playground when I’m trying new ideas.) I think it would be rude for me to create a search engine for another educator’s blog and post it for the world to see.


Twitter

Twitter Profile / Rosaura Ochoa / CC BY 2.0

I use several techniques for finding information on Twitter.

• TweetDeck makes it easy to manage my Twitter timeline. Multiple Twitter searches (for keywords or hashtags) can occur simultaneously, each occupying its own column.
• Storify pulls media from multiple social networks, including Twitter. I use Storify to help find current relevant information about topics that I am researching.
• And favoriting tweets is sort of like bookmarking. Well, at least the favorites can all be viewed as a subset of the Twitter firehose!

Search Engines

Search Engine Strategies / Ken Yeung / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I usually use Google as my search engine. Sometimes, however, I use an alternative search engine.

• Duck Duck Go does not track me, the interface is less cluttered, and the ads appear to be less spammy.
• Bing provides an interesting collection of results and a less cluttered interface.
• I have not yet used Yippy (formerly Clusty) in any serious research. I am interested in seeing the results from using this Deep Web search engine.

But… no matter which search engine(s) I use this final step finishes my research on topics.



Interested in Learning More?

Articles about Search Engines

Introduction to Search Engines...

• http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/eguide-internet-search
• http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/navigatingthenet/tp/top_10_search_engines_for_beginners.htm
• http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

Search Engines for Academic Research...

• http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/12-fabulous-academic-search-engines.html

Search Engines for Students...

• http://education-portal.com/articles/20_of_the_Best_Search_Engines_for_Students.html
• http://www.sweetsearch.com/

Search Engines for Researchers...

• http://www.jisc.ac.uk/inform/inform37/SearchingBeyondGoogle.html#.UzEPOPbUWuF

 Articles about Bookmarking

• http://www.childrensprogress.com/2012/03/02/bookmark-online-educational-resources-tools/
• http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/data-management-roundups/the-24-best-apps-to-remember-everything-you-discover-online/

Articles about Curation

• http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/15_topnotch_content_curation_tools_15378.aspx#
• http://iteachu.uaf.edu/grow-skills/filelink-management/content-curation-tools/
• http://www.razorsocial.com/content-curation-tools/
• http://dendritepark.com/10-best-content-curation-tools/#.UzGsZ_bUWuF
• http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/top-content-curation-tools/
• http://elearningindustry.com/top-10-free-content-curation-tools-for-teachers
• http://www.youbrandinc.com/ultimate-lists/ultimate-list-content-curation-tools-platform/
• http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/