Twubs - Moderated Display of Twitter Hashtag

We've been looking for a way to display a twitter feed at a conference.  We would like to moderate it so that the feed doesn't get spammed.  Twubs.com is a site that allows you to register your hashtag and register your event.  You can then control how fast your feed displays - so people can read it - and you can alter the screen - so that your hashtag is displayed for people to participate.  We are getting ready for our conference this weekend, so this will be our first live event.  All of our tests have worked great.

Twubs.com will help us display our hashtag for the Dublin Literacy Conference - #dublit13.  I hope by displaying the pre-conference tweets, it will generate some excitement and lead into some continued backchannel discussions.  Check it out on Saturday.

Connecting with Good People

Below are some people you might want to follow on Twitter.  I had the opportunity to see and hear these people talk at BLC11 in Boston.  They spoke on various topics regarding education and technology.  They are:

Garth Holman - @garthholman - online textbook and collaborating from a distance - blog
Mike Pennington - @professormike1 - online textbook and collaborating from a distance - blog
Jon Bergmann - @jonbergmann - flipped classrooms - ning
Aaron Sams - @chemicalsams - flipped classrooms- ning
Chris Bell - @cbell619 - google docs for collaboration - web info
Marco Torres - @torres21 - using technology to engage students - web info
Jeff Utecht - @jutecht - using QR codes in schools - blog
Angela Maiers - @angelamaiers - social networking and web 3.0 - web info
Rob Evans - dealing with change in schools - web info
Kathy Cassidy - @kathycassidy - digital portfolios - blog
Seth Bowers - @sethbowers - student tools for collaboration - blog

If you get a chance, read the material these people write about or see them in the future.  They have good insights into helping students succeed.  Their ideas are good and materials are helpful.

Twitter for Teachers

I used Tech Tuesday to talk with teachers about Twitter.  As we talked, I found that they were concerned about using Twitter at school.  As the conversations played out, people started thinking about how they might use twitter.  Our initial thoughts were to get them to use Twitter for themselves and see that there are ways to connect with many people all over the world that share their common interests.  Our hope is that they grow their following, connect with great people, learn and share information, and then start to think of ways to implement in the school setting.  I have struggled to see where schools are using Twitter on any large scale, so it is hard for me to start pushing them directly into using Twitter for a school-only experience.  Twitter can be one of the tools that helps them grow.

When introducing teachers to Twitter, I began by sharing some valuable web sources.  I started with Twitter in Plain English, by Common Craft, the Twitter4Teachers Wiki, and 30 Essential Twitter Tutorials for Newbies and Experts.  These resources are good places for teachers to go to start learning new Twitter skills, as well as locating other experts in their field of interest.  I shared with them how to do "people searches", how to follow people, how to create lists - so that they can organize the people they follow, how to look at people others followed, and much more.  I tried to keep things simple - as Twitter can be a little bit much if you jump in to quickly.

I asked the new users to follow me and told them I'd follow them back.  I had them follow our school (@dublinjeromehs), the school district (@dublinschools), and mentioned some other area groups they could follow.  Many had friends that they knew were using Twitter - so those were easy people to add.  I am interested to see how many will keep going with Twitter and what they find beneficial over the next few weeks and months.  I think there are great resources to be obtained and shared through Twitter and hope that my colleagues can learn as much using Twitter as I have.

I am currently looking for schools and school districts that use Twitter.  I am interested in observing the way they Tweet and seeing possible uses for our schools and district.  My administration and I are working to figure out the best ways to utilize this form of communication, so that teachers, parents, students, and all interested in our building could "follow" us to see the great things that go on.  Twitter can be a powerful tool to inform the community.  Hopefully, we'll see some exciting ways to make it happen.

Results of Survey

Results of survey aug 2010

As you can see from the survey, there is definitely room for growth in many areas of technology when it comes to using online tools for personal and professional growth.  Over the next couple months, we will spend time getting teachers comfortable with some of the tools that can provide much information and allow them the ability to share snippets of information, as they become more and more comfortable.  We will continue to add new online tools, so they can see that there are many ways to communicate to many different audiences.

Some of the things that they have mentioned are concerns about time vs. benefit factors.  Teachers feel that adding new things to their plate (without taking any off), just gives them more to do.  We will attempt to show them that there is so much out there that can change the way they do their work.  There are online tools, communication tools, research tools, and many others that can help make their job more efficient.  They should not just keep doing things the way they have in the past.

We will start with Twitter and see if we can grow the number of staff that use.  We will attempt to share with them some of the ways I use twitter, as well as some of the people that I follow.  We will use sources of A Teacher's Guide to Twitter, by  Kate Klingensmith at her blog Once a Teacher, video clips from Common Craft, and others sources mentioned before, like Jeff Utech's Reach and Will Richardson's book on Web Tools.  We will try to get teachers to grow there personal learning networks.  Finding people from around the world that share their same interests and passions.

We will then discuss some safety and security issues - discussing digital footprint and what they want the web to know about them.  We discuss being proactive in the placement of information.  Many teachers are afraid to put information out on the web, but they don't realize that there is already information out there.  They need to flood it with good information, so that the incorrect or unwanted information is harder to find.

It is our belief that teachers will be much more willing to work with students in technology, if they are more comfortable using it themselves.  We hope they learn a lot of new skills this year that will allow them to be more open and aware of what is available to them and their students, which will push them to think of new ways to approach those old classroom activities.

Wish us luck as we head into the year - trying to get a lot of teachers using online tools.  Twitter, RSS feeds, photo sharing, podcasting, Facebook, and many more may be just part of our culture by May.  We hope they start to think of new ways to use that really help the students prepare for their future.