Twitter

A social networking site for ELT?

The majority of us have probably heard of twitter since it first launched back in 2006. With over 500 million users, a global appeal, and a simple interface...it's inevitable that people in the ELT profession sought a piece of the pie! But first things first - here's a tutorial explaining how to use it:

So why use it?

• Encourages teacher autonomy in the sense that we should be progressive and innovative beings in control of our own destinies, hoping to avoid complacency and fossilisation.
• Promotes the idea that teacher's should be learners - active in their pursuit of collaborating with others and co-constructing knowledge to constantly trying to better ourselves.
• Helpful tool for professional development. It may not be the only/main string to your bow, but it's most definitely useful for sharing and finding out about topics of interest.
• Directly addressing/retweeting someone will reverberate globally.
• It can be used in real time like a chat room -  EG: Every Wednesday a group of teachers using the #eltchat.org meet on twitter. One of its core members is nominated on a weekly basis to discuss something of interest, which acts as a good repository for getting and sharing information in a friendly, open, online community. At the end of the discussion someone will volunteer to write up all of the links posted.
• The search function allows users to delve into the archives and back catalogues of everything ever posted, which allows you to find information and tweets both quickly and easily.
• It's free, a diverse platform to other social networking sites, and easy to use!

Words of warning

• It can be a one way process - if you follow someone (famous) they might not reciprocate, however twitter is like anything in the sense that the more you put in, the more you get out.
• It has bad press as some people use it to post about their overpriced, over hyped, over cooked brunch they regretted buying from a local cafe. The trick here is to keep it professional - if you want to post about your social life then create a different account for that.
• 140 characters isn't a lot so keep your tweet short, sharp, and snappy! However by using bitly you can post the URL of the website you want to tweet into the box and it'll automatically shorten it for you. Great tool! 
• Once you've created and set up your username you can't change it.
• Low and passive input will obviously result in less successful outcomes, so stay active!

Finally...

Follow me @gjmuddeman 

Oh, and my Taiwanese blogging buddy is also discussing a wide variety of ICT tools for ELT on his blog so check it out.