eLearning…A Semester in Review

By: Phil Zellers

It has been quite an exciting year for the eLearning team.  We have attended many conferences and professional developments over the past several months and have gathered some valuable information and tools for technology integration.  With this being the last blog of 2013, I thought I would recap some of the services we can provide and some of the resources we have made available to everyone. 

How Can We Help?

The eLearning team is here to assist you in any way we can.  Here is a list of some of the ways we can help.  It is not an all-inclusive list so, if you need help with something but don’t see it on the list please come see us.  Here’s the list: Digital Organization (organizing files and emails, creating folders), Curating Content (collecting and organizing content and delivering it to students), Connected Education (Twitter, Learning Connection), My Big Campus (all things MBC), Google Apps (google drive and docs, gmail, etc.), Apple Products (downloading and updating apps, updating software, Apple lessons), Project Base Learning (how to get started), Video Editing and Slideshows (Using iPads for videos and pictures, editing and compiling pictures and videos), and Web Tools (assistance with integrating a variety of web tools).

Available Resources

The eLearning team has compiled a variety of resources and put them online for your use.  The best place to get started finding these resources is our newly created webpage.  You can find our webpage by going to the Perry Central homepage and clicking on eLearning in the Programs drop down menu across the top.  There you will find a slideshow that has different links to various resources such as this blog, a more extensive list of what we can assist you with, PBL help, SFS RISE, Total Participation Techniques (TPTs), and a list of web tools.  Another place you can go is to the PC eLearn My Big Campus page.  In the resources tab, you will find folders with resources on PBL, TPTs, and Content Reading and Literacy.  One more great place for resources is Twitter.  By following any of us on Twitter (@Jamie Guillaume1, @MrKrisWalsh, @Zellersp), you will have access to any links to resources we tweet or retweet from others.   

Meet with Us

Yes, the resources are online but much of the time the assistance you need requires a face to face interaction.  This is what we enjoy most.  We want to meet with you to help in any way we can.  We are more than happy to meet with you (or to come into your classroom to model, introduce a new tech tool, or just brainstorm) whenever it is most convenient.   

We have truly enjoyed working with everyone this semester and look forward to continuing that work in the spring semester.  We hope that you have a restful and relaxing break!  Happy Holidays to you and your families from the eLearning team! 

Intro to Screencasting

By Kris Walsh

Happy Tuesday everyone! (even if this is a little late, it is still Tuesday)

In this week’s Techy Tuesday, I would like to talk to you a little about Screencasting. Right off the bat, I want to give a shout out to Bob Linne. He has been using screencasting in some of his math classes. He took some time earlier in the year to talk with me about how he does his screencasts and to give me a quick tutorial. Thanks Bob.

So what is a screencast anyway? Simply put, it is a way to record the information on your computer screen with some narration and broadcast it in a way for your audience to be able to see and hear the information you present. It has applications in all grade levels and subject areas. Having a screencast available means that a student can watch a lesson on a particular subject over and over again. Students are also able to rewind and rewatch a portion of the video to really focus on an area where they are struggling with a topic.

The best place to learn more about screencasting is probably khanacademy.org. This site was created for the purpose of sharing screencasts about a wide range of topics for free, to anyone who wants to learn more. There are many ways to use screencasts. You can save them and embed them into MBC bundles that you may have created for a class. You can provide students with links to selected screencasts that you would like the students to see. You can save them to a folder on the common drive. You can then direct students to the correct folder and section to either copy the screencast or to view it. (If they copy it to their computer, they should be able to view the content at home.)

Now that you know what a screencast is, and can find some that are ready made, how do you make your own? There are many web tools available for you to use to do this, (I have a link to some additional information below) but I am going to focus on Camtasia Studio. This program should already be preloaded on our school issued laptops.

This program is in the start menu under all programs>Camtasia Studio 7> Camtasia Studio

This program will record what is on your screen. This could include powerpoints, word documents, document cam footage and more. You can record a narration of what you are showing on the screen. There are editing tools that you can use to add transitions and other finishing touches. You have the option of recording video of you from your computer’s built in webcam, but in most cases, voice over is fine and less distracting.

It is a good idea to keep your screencasts to around 10 minutes in length, both for keeping the size of the file manageable and maintaining the attention of the audience.

Save the final product as an mp4 file that can be viewed from any computer. Make sure that the video is in an easily accessible location for your audience. You may have a Youtube channel, MBC Bundle, or simply save it on the school’s common drive in a specific folder for students to access.

As always, the eLearning team would be happy to assist you if you want to learn more or try a screencast yourself. Please let us know if you have questions.

Find more tips and tricks at this blog-

http://blogs.techsmith.com/tips-how-tos/59-tips-creating-engaging-screencasts/#.Up6qApEWnwI

4 popular Screencasting tools- (via edudemic- one of my favorite sites)

http://www.edudemic.com/most-popular-screencasting-tools/

An interesting blog entry about some pitfalls to learn about and hopefully avoid

https://tutsplus.com/2012/04/frequent-screencasting-pitfalls/

Practical Use of Google Docs in Reading
By Jamie Guillaume

Last week I was working with a small group of 6^th graders on the skill of inferencing.  Even in my role as an eLearning coach, I still get the opportunity to work with an intervention group once or twice a week.  Consequently, these students sometimes also serve as guinea pigs for me to try new technology tools within a lesson. 

I first began creating my inferencing lesson by finding an intriguing piece of text to use about Bethany Hamilton being attacked by a shark.  The reading was on a laminated poster so the students used dry erase markers to mark the text, and to organize our inferences, we used a shared Google Doc. 

I created the Google Doc prior to the lesson and inserted a table with three columns: Inferences, Background Knowledge, and Text Clues.  First we pre-read the text by looking at titles, headings, pictures, captions and so forth.  Then we all made an inference.  I modeled this process and thought aloud making my inference, identifying a text clue to support my inference, and explained my background knowledge that led me to my inference. The students logged into the document prior to the start of the lesson, were assigned a row in the table and instructed to follow the same procedure I modeled to form and support their inference. 

I quickly noticed that the students that grasped the concept making and supporting inferences, automatically began typing in their row.  I as a teacher was able to see who was typing and give them instant feedback to help them make any needed changes.  Students who were still a little unsure would watch, read and listen to what was taking place and then they jumped in when they were ready!

It was a great intervention lesson because the students were engaged and loved typing on the Google Doc simultaneously!  I loved it because I was able to give each of them individual feedback while they were working and could see everyone processing as they typed!

If you are ever interested in using Google Docs in your classroom, do not hesitate to contact one of your eLearning Coaches.  This Google app is great for any interactive lesson!

MBC Library:  A Wealth of Resources

By Phil Zellers

 

My Big Campus is not only a place to house all of your content and organize your classes, it is also a place to find a wealth of great resources.  The MBC library houses resources including videos, images, websites, bundles created by other teachers, professional development bundles, and even schoolwork created by other teachers.  It’s a great place to start when looking for resources.  

How to Search

When you log into MBC you have a number of icons showing up down the left side of your screen.  Schoolwork, groups, and drive are a few that show up, but if you keep looking, you will see an icon named, “Library.”  Clicking on this will take you to the MBC Library.  From there, you can search for resources by keyword, media type (images, videos, bundles, schoolwork, websites, etc.), subject, grade level, and standards.  This allows you to narrow or broaden your search as much as needed by adjusting what you put in those categories.  

Branching Bundles

If you find a bundle that another teacher has created you can “branch” it to yourself.  It will then show up in your “drive.”  From there, you can access that bundle and then edit it and make any changes you wish.  It’s nice because you don’t have to start from scratch to make your own, but you can also make changes to one that’s already been created.  There are a lot of bundles already created for all subject areas.   On another note, if you would like to learn more about bundles and how to create them, see one of the eLearning coaches.  We would be glad to help you start bundling.  It’s a great way to organize and deliver your content to students and is especially nice for when you have a sub.  Students have your step by step directions in the form of a bundle with all the resources (articles, pictures, videos, etc.) embedded. 

Adding to the MBC Library

We can all add to the MBC Library.  When creating a bundle you can choose to publish.  By publishing your work, you add your bundle to the MBC Library and then others have access to it.  You can also add YouTube videos to the MBC Library which is very helpful as this is the only way students can access YouTube videos but they will only be accessing videos you want them to access.  I would recommend searching the MBC Library first to see if the video has already been added by another teacher.  There are tons of videos already there.   If the video is not there, you can add it.  There is a button called “Add a Library Item” in the top right corner.  When you click on it, you get a drop down and one option is to “Add New YouTube Video.”  You will just have to copy and paste the URL of the video you want into the field provided and fill out the rest of the fields.  Once your video has been added to the library it will also be added to your “Drive.”  You can then put in the announcements or resources of your group page to deliver it to students. 

 

There are a lot of great resources in the MBC Library that will keep you from having to “reinvent the wheel.”  It’s a great place to start looking for resources.  Remember as well, you are all members of the PC eLearn group which has a lot of resources and we will continue to add more.  As always, if you have any questions or need help, see your friendly eLearning coaches, we are more than happy to help!

Now We’re Talking

By Jamie Guillaume

Recently I attended a High Ability Conference in Indianapolis and like always, all of the ideas presented were not only good for High Ability kids, but for all kids!  Prior to this presentation, I was aware of TED talks; I have the app on my iPad, I have listened to a few, but I really did not know a fantastic way to use them in the classroom…. until now! 

TED Talks are video recorded, entertaining speeches on various topics.  In fact the topics are endless!  One idea to use them in the classroom is to first start by searching a talk based on your subject area or topic.  The TED site also lets you search by length of time.  I do recommend fully previewing the talk before using it in your classroom, because there are some talks that may not be appropriate for all ages.  After you find a talk to use, under the video you will see, “transcript.”  This pull down menu allows you to select a language and you can copy and paste the text of the talk into a Word or a Google Doc and print the transcript!

This gives students an entertaining and informative piece of text to annotate! Elementary teachers could use this as their read aloud and upper elementary and Jr.-Sr. high teachers could watch the clip and then for homework students could annotate the text of the talk.  To make this more rigorous, after the students have had time with the text, the teacher could facilitate a Socratic seminar. 

If you are not familiar with Socratic seminars, the students are arranged in a circle, they number the paragraphs of the text and the teacher poses a deep-thought question.  The students then discuss the question and reference the text to support their ideas.  The numbered paragraphs allow the student responding to let the other students know where they are referencing in the text to support their response. 

I recommend the following link to view a TED Talk titled, The Key to Success? Grit (It’s only 6 minutes): http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit.html
Not only will you love the context of the talk but it will allow you to see a performed talk and while you are viewing the talk, be sure to click on the transcript pull down menu to also see the text that corresponds with the talk. 

Bookmarking with Symbaloo

By Kris Walsh

Symbaloo (www.symbaloo.com) is a great web tool that you can use to save and share information. You can use it to create a page or “webmix” where you can arrange visual bookmarks or “tiles” in a way that makes sense to you and to your class. When you are done creating a webmix, you can then share it so that students in your class and in other classes can have access to your links. You can create and have tabbed webmixes so that you can switch between themes and topics quickly.

It is tough to explain until you actually see a webmix, so we will just jump into the action!

This is a Symbaloo that I created for a lower grade class that is working on fossils and geology. There is a search box in the middle that cannot be modified, but the rest of the page has a grid that I can use to fill in with links that I have found and curated myself so that I know that they meet the needs of the class. I can place the tiles anywhere I want so that my content is grouped the way that I want it. In this case, in the upper left corner are sites that deal with volcanoes, upper right has info about types of rocks, lower left has some interactive activites about rocks and minerals, and the lower right has some activities related to fossils.

These are very helpful and fairly easy to create. You will need to create an education account at symbaloo.com. They will give you a few default webmixes that you can use (or delete) To add a new webmix, you can click on the + tab and you get an option to create your own or to search existing webmixes that have been created by other users.

To create a new one- Simply click the create button, give it a name, and a blank Symbaloo page will pop up. You can click into any of the blank tiles to get the option to add a new tile. Again like the webmix itself, you can search for existing tiles or add your own.

                 

When that is complete, I can simply click and drag the tile where I want it to be located, then repeat the process. It can take some time to add all of the tiles that you want, but when your symbaloo is complete, you can then share it with your class (and the world!)

Click on the share button at the top of the page and you will get some options on how to share your mix. You will fill out the form that pops up and click share. You will want to give it a good name that is very descriptive so that it is easily found. It will also give you a link that you can write down (or use mbcurl.me to shorten) and email or simply write on the board for students to access. Students do not have to have a Symbaloo account to see webmixes, only to create and share. Don’t let students work under your account, they could modify your Symbaloo by moving or deleting tiles and undoing your hard work. Have them use the link that you get from sharing to access the mix, this way they cannot make any changes to it.

Once you create a webmix, it stays in your account until you delete it.

You can also search for webmixes that have already been created by other users. If you check them out and like the content, you can give students the link to use that mix. I have experimented with the site and rarely find a whole mix that works for my needs, but I have used them as a jumping off point to find good tiles that I may want for my mix.

This is just meant to be a basic overview of Symbaloo and how it can help you in your class.

We have used it fairly often and have a pretty good understanding of the site. If you would like to learn more about Symbaloo, please email any of the elearning coaches and we would be glad to come and sit down with you and get you going with this great tool!

Happy Mixing!!

The Magic Resource… Well at Least a Quality Resource

By Jamie Guillaume

 

Recently PBS Learning Media (pbslearningmedia.org) was presented to me as a strong site to find, gather and organize subject area resources.  I was a bit skeptical at first because who hasn’t heard of PBS? I know this is a great learning organization and produces, Sid the Science Kid and Curious George by Why I am I just now hearing (or possibly listening) to information regarding this site, specifically designed for teachers?

 

Despite my reluctance, I approached this site with an open mind and found that it was incredibly useful and completely free to use.  You simply create a login and password, permitting access to tons of resources, including videos, lessons, assignments, projects and content related games!  

 

To use this site, you type in the subject area in which you are searching and tons of resources appear.  You are also able to categorize searches by grade level, which will narrow down the resources presented, making it a little less overwhelming.  My favorite feature of this site is that when you find a site that you like, you categorize it as one of your “Favorites,” allowing you to always be able to locate it.  Many times when searching for information I will find something useful but then have a difficult time relocating it.  PBS’s “Favorites” feature allows useful information you discover to be saved in one location for easy accessibility.  

 

Educators are presented with the challenge of pulling resources from a variety of locations. Mainly because we have yet to find a single location that houses intriguing lessons and rigorous assessments, aligned with the standards; hence requiring us to use a variety of resources.  PBS Learning Media is by no means the magic resource where you are going to find all of the information you need for all of your subjects, causing you to never have to search any other site again.  However it is a great source for quality content to store in your bag of tricks!

 

MAX is a PIRATE and He Increases Student Engagement?

By Phil Zellers

This blog kind of serves as a book review of a couple of different books I am currently reading.  One is the MAX Teaching book Jody gave us in department meetings and the other is a book the eLearning coaches are reading called, “Teach Like a PIRATE.”  Both have to do with increasing student engagement and nothing to do with Max the Pirate.    

 Collecting Content
Over the last couple of years, I have begun to realize the importance of incorporating literacy standards into my classroom on an everyday basis.  I am in the early stages of doing this and still have a lot to learn but I would like to share some of my experiences along with some of what I have learned from the two books listed above.  In my Social Studies classes, the students complete about 8 PBL units (each representing a particular theme) per year.   I have begun to create text sets for each project or theme we do.  This is far from being done but I have a good start.  Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day (I know, typical history teacher saying!) and text sets shouldn’t be either.  I gather interesting articles, videos, maps, graphs, etc. throughout the year and organize them by theme.  This allows me to have and build on these resources from year to year.  We don’t have to build our content from scratch, there are a lot of great resources out there to help with this process.  A simple Google search is a great place to start.  

 “Hooking” Students

In “Teach Like a PIRATE,” the author talks about creating a “hook” to grab students’ attention.  Moving away from the textbook has been a freeing experience for me.  The last couple of years I have just used the textbook as a resource.  It has freed me up to incorporate a lot of engaging content into my classes.  I have pulled in articles from books like “,Oh Yikes!  History’s Grossest Wackiest Moments.”  From some of these articles, which are written in a language the students can understand, students have learned the process for mummification in ancient Egypt.  They especially like the part where it talks about removing the brains through the nose!  I use articles like these as a “hook” to grab their attention and get them engaged.  Gross, weird, or shocking always grabs their attention (especially 7^th graders!) but we can also “hook” them by making the content relevant or by showing them the real world uses of the material. 

 Teaching Students to Learn

A quote from MAX Teaching that I really liked was, “I learned how to facilitate active learning from students.”   I have begun to realize the importance of becoming a facilitator of their learning rather than being the content expert that just tells them all the right answers.  Another way to put it is “students learn better when they are coached through a process in which they are active in trying to make sense of something.”  Being a coach, I can’t go hit or throw a pitch for a player.  I have to coach them through the process of learning how to do it themselves.  To me, this makes a lot of sense in the classroom as well.  Teaching students how to learn is just as important, if not more, than the content we teach.  MAX teaching is a three step process where students are first Motivated to engage in learning, second Acquire new information, and third eXtend beyond the text.  With the right content and strategies, students can be engaged in reading in the content areas and learn how to learn.

Technology and Reading in Content Areas

It’s really not about the technology here.  Creating an engaging content area reading lesson could be done with no technology at all.  Since we have it though, there are some great ways to incorporate it and take engagement to another level.  Students can deliver what they know through creation tools such as Animoto, Easel.ly, Prezi, and others.  The discussion feature on MBC could serve as open dialogue for the class to discuss the reading.  If you are reading a novel or a nonfiction book in your class it could also serve as a host for a book club.   Some online resources for gathering content are Google, YouTube, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Edutopia, Thinkfinity, as well as others. 

Like I said, I am not an expert about this but have a lot of good resources to help.  I would like to work with you to help in any way I can.  Together, we can find engaging content, find strategies and activities that work best for your class and content, and help find creative ways for your students to show you what they know.  The eLearning department would be happy to help with any of this or any of the tech tools listed above. 

How to Become a Twithead Part 2

By Kris Walsh

Last week I blogged about how to get your account up and running, this week is more about getting the most out of your Twitter account. I will talk about list curation, Twitter terminology, Twitter chats, and the power of the hashtag.

It has been said that getting information from the internet is like trying to take a drink from a fire hose.

The internet is a wealth of good information. But if you type a search term into Google, you will get all kinds of information shooting at you, and it can be hard to decide which information is most useful. Nothing out there can help with this problem better than a well-curated Twitter account.

If you have a Twitter account up and running, you probably have a list of people who you follow. It is important to make sure that the list of people that you follow contains people who have opinions and ideas that you respect and that they can be trusted sources of information on a given topic. I have many people that I follow on my Twitter account who I don’t even know personally, I have participated in Twitter chats with them or other people have retweeted what they have said and that compelled me to find out more about them and follow them.

Last week I touched on several terms and ideas linked to having a Twitter account, and this week I wanted to explore them more in depth.

Tweet- This is the message that you or other users send out to their follwers. These messages can only be 140 characters in length including spaces and punctuation. This leads to some interesting grammar, but it forces you to get to the point quickly. If you want to share links on Twitter, it is a good idea to use a URL shortener to save you some characters. (we can help you with this or it may be explained in a later blog) You can also share pictures on Twitter.

Hashtag- In Twitter, this is represented by a #. This is a way of tagging information so that it can be found easily. When searching for information on a particular topic, instead of searching for a person, enter a hashtag and then the topic (ex- #inelearn, this will bring up all tweets that have this hashtag in them. (this is the hashtag that the state has established for tweets about elearning in Indiana) This will show you anyone’s tweets on the searched topic no matter if you follow them or not)

When you Tweet, this makes your topics searchable and lets people find what you are talking about. If you tweet without a hashtag, it is likely that the only people who will ever see your tweet are the people who follow you. If you want to reach a wider audience, always use a hashtag.

Retweet- This is often abbreviated with RT. This is a way of sharing a tweet that you like with your followers. You simply click the retweet button at the bottom of the tweet (looks like 2 arrows going in a circle) to retweet a tweet that you like. You share “credit” for the tweet with the original tweeter, and your followers get to see the tweet, link or article that you shared. The original author of the tweet gets a notification that they were retweeted and they can feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

Mention-If you are mentioned in a tweet or if you mention someone in your tweet using their handle, the person being mentioned in the tweet gets a notification that they are being talked about. It is a good way to get someone to chime in on a conversation that you are having or to give thanks for a good idea that you got from a fellow twithead.

Favorite- If you see something that you like, but you do not want to share it with your followers, but you want to have quick access to it, you can click the star at the bottom of the tweet to favorite it. This will notify the author that their tweet was favorited, but your followers will not see the tweet. It will put the tweet on your favorites list so that you can see it again or look more into something when it is more convenient.

Reply- Somewhat self-explanatory, but you can reply to the author of a tweet directly. If you reply from the tweet itself, it will be part of your feed and your followers can see it. If you want to have a more private conversation with someone you can…..

Direct Message- This is an option to send a message to a particular user that is not published on either of your Twitter feeds. It is a way to keep a conversation private. It is still subject to the 140 character limit though.

Twitter Chat- Often, there are scheduled times when groups are on Twitter to have a discussion. To participate, you will need to know the chat’s hashtag and search it during the time of the discussion. This way you can keep up with the conversation going on even if you do not follow all of the participants of the chat. I will post a schedule of education Twitter chats and their hashtags below.

I promise that I have tried to keep both of these blog posts as short as possible. It is tough to cover all of the possibilities of Twitter though. Please feel free to contact any of us if you are interested in using Twitter more. I was not sold on it right away, but now, as I have learned more about using it, I find it to be a very useful tool.

Follow us! @mrkriswalsh @jguillaume1 @zellersp Our hashtag is #pcelearn please feel free to search that tag and use it when posting about technology use here at Perry Central.

Schedule of education based Twitter chats and their hashtags are located at this website

bit.ly/officialchatlist

A directory of specific indiana Twitter profiles can be found here:

http://inelearnchat.blogspot.com/p/inelearn-twitter-lists.html

 

How to Become a Twithead (has nothing to do with Mrs. Rowland)
By Kris Walsh

Happy Connected Educators Month!

October is connected educator month. To celebrate, we thought that our topics this month would share information about becoming more connected with other professionals and people that share passions that you do. Today’s Techy Tuesday is an intro to Twitter.

Why Tweet?

This is a question that I often hear when talking to people about Twitter. Many people are a part of Facebook or other social networks and wonder why they should follow something else. I love my Facebook and check and post to it on a daily basis, but I find that for most people, Facebook serves a more personal purpose than their Twitter accounts do. If you were to look at my Facebook page (feel free to friend me J ), you will find pics of my girls, funny stories about my girls, and posts about TV shows and video games that I like. I occasionally post stories about happenings that I am a part of at school. I also share professional articles that I hear about online, but you are more likely to see me share a comic or ecard.

On the other hand, my Twitter account (@mrkriswalsh- follow me J) is more professional. I follow people and topics that are of a personal interest to me, but the vast majority of my tweets are professional in nature. I use my account to follow other educators and tech professionals across the state, participate in professional Twitter chats, and get updates about news both in and out of the education field. Twitter is a great place to network with people who you may not know on a personal level and get their thoughts about specific topics that interest you.

First- Create an account

Twitter is a social network, much like Facebook. You simply go to Twitter.com and sign up for a free account. You can choose a username or “handle” and a password. You can (and should) write a short blurb about yourself for your profile and select a picture that you want to be your face on Twitter.

Second- Follow some users

This is the most important aspect of Twitter. Your Twitter feed is only as good as YOU make it. The more selective you are about who you follow, the better information you will receive. If you follow someone that you find is not meeting your needs on Twitter, simply unfollow them. If they have a large following, they will likely not realize that you have stopped following them.

Simply use the search bar to search for people that you know who use Twitter. You can type a name with no symbols (Kris Walsh) and it will list people who match or closely match that name. When looking for users and you know their username make sure to use the @ symbol first so Twitter knows that you are looking for a specific user. (@mrkriswalsh)

There are several of us “Twitheads” here at school, or you can search out professionals that you have interacted with at trainings or in classes that you have taken.  You can also follow news sites such as CNN, organizations like the DOE, sports teams, celebrities or other personal interests. When you find someone, simply click the follow button and you will start seeing their tweets. Unlike Facebook, typically you don’t have to be accepted by the person that you want to follow. You can set your account up to be private, but it is not the norm on Twitter.

Other ways to find users-

On the left side of the page, Twitter will list suggestions for people to follow based on the people that you currently follow. Simply click the follow button.

My favorite way to find users to follow is to “stalk” the following lists of other people with similar interests (It’s a common practice, anyone who says they don’t do this is lying). If you click on someone’s name and then click on following, you can see who they follow. If any users interest you, you can follow them too.

This is all that you need to do to get your Twitter account up and running. There are some more advanced ideas and tools available through Twitter that I will share at a later time.

Let any of the eLearning coaches know if you have questions about how to use Twitter. We would be glad to meet with you on an individual basis or in a small group to help you get an account up and running.

These are the basics that you need to know to get an account up and running. You can look forward to a sequel that will include information about hashtags, retweeting, mentioning, Twitter chats, and other Twitter jargon. Please let me know in the comments if you have any specific questions that you have that I may address in part 2 of Twithead.

Happy Tweeting!!

@mrkriswalsh, @Jamieguillaume1, @zellersp

This is not an all inclusive list, but a good place to start. Teachthought itself seems like a good organization to follow or like on Facebook.

http://www.teachthought.com/social-media/50-educator-twitter-accounts-worth-following/