Into the Driver's Seat

by Med Kharbach

"Most of my Twitter interaction includes hashtags. I use a wide variety of hashtags to follow and participate in discussions around a particular topic. I do have some specific hashtags that I use on every day basis such as #edtech, #education, #phdchat, #ipadded and a couple more but sometimes my selection goes way beyond that to include other hashtags depending on the type of search I am doing."

by Shane Haggerty

summary by EdSurge

"Shane Haggerty recently added his two cents to the recently popular discussions on teachers’ use of Twitter in his Edudemic article on “Twitter teams.” After citing several examples of how Twitter benefits teachers and schools at large, he offers advice for creating K-12 “niche social communication communities” with hashtags and accounts relating to areas of expertise (“central office, the high school, the middle school, elementary schools, specialty areas, athletics”). Another upside: helping seemingly unapproachable administrators open up by fostering real-time communication and open reports on school ongoings."

posted by Katie Lepi

"By now, you already know that Twitter is a great tool for teachers. Not only can you use it in your classroom to keep your students and their parents informed of what’s going on, you can also use it in class for projects and homework, and you can use it for your own professional development and PLN. Recently, we heard from a teacher who uses Twitter Lists to help manage her PLN and keep her sane when she’s trying to find the resources she needs. Twitter lists are a great way to maximize what you can get out of the tool, and an easy way to help you categorize and ‘file’ the people/things/information you’re after!"