Getting to Twitter Town

Professor of Italian at Montclair State• iVenus – Apr 2007

• profeac – Jan 2008

• profenza – Jan 2009

Students have used Twitter in• ITAL103 (Intermediate)

• Grammar & Composition (Advanced)

• Cultural Studies (in English)

Text-based posts only

140 character message size constraint

Community members include “friends” (people you choose to follow) and “followers” (people who follow you)

Public or private participation allowed

The Town Square = the

Timeline

The last thing youmicro-blogged:a.k.a. a tweet

Where you update/ tweet

Town water cooler = Populartopics

Town water cooler = Populartopics

What benefits will students and/or teachers perceive with this type of social network?

What disadvantages?

• Raise your hand• Or chat

Tweets are a source of information; people in certain places, at certain events, sharing at a global level

How is this applicable to the foreign language classroom?• What would you communicate to your

students in 140 characters or less?• Use the hashtag - #larc09

Create groupings by adding context and metadata

The @Replies feature was introduced because we noticed lots of folks putting the @ symbol in front of Twitter usernames as a way of addressing one another. • For example: @biz what are you drinking in

your avatar? (It's a soy latte.)

@username also now in the middle of tweets as a way to simply reference another account

Sharing and crediting sources

They can:be engaged in either synchronous or asynchronous modes of communication (always on, always connected)interact with individuals or community members in the L2 participate in the virtual classroom and in the L2 culture

Twitterers can:micro-blog about what they are doing (learner written output)read what others are doing (learner’s comprehensible input)communicate directly with someone they are following (negotiation of meaning)

Create a Twitter handle for academic use only

Use class time to have students create their handle, follow classmates and tweet for the first time

Prompt them initially to have them feel comfortable with tweeting

Develop your best practices for course objectives

Follow a ProfessionalFollow a Famous PersonGrammarRule Based WritingMaximizing the Teaching MomentPublic Note PadWriting Assignment

Class chatter Classroom communityGet a Sense of the WorldTrack a WordTrack a ConferenceInstant Feedback

Source: AcademHackwww.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/

Twitter is self-perpetuating and generative

School 22.3 %Entertainment 13.6 %Feelings 13.6 %Food 12.1 %Hobby 8.0 %Family 4.9 %Home 4.4 %Friends 4.1 %American life3.9 %Events 3.6 %

Unexpected uses of Twitter:bulletin board, requesting information and help• in an academic context (e.g.,

looking for misplaced textbooks and handouts, asking about deadlines for assignments)

• technology-related matters, (e.g., how do I tweet from my cell? how do I personalize my Twitter homepage like you did?)

Students tweeted rather than e-mailed the instructor with questions

Twitter can transform social networking to educational networking.

Twitter helped reduce affective filters.

Learners stated that twittering had them asking for more information and allowed them to clarify using the L2.

What would you communicate to your students in 140 characters or less?

What prompts would you use?• Use the hashtag - #larc09

There are many different applications that can enhance your visit to Twitter Town

http://twitter.pbworks.com/Apps