Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom

A primary school teacher sharing resources, practical ideas and thoughts on blogging, global collaboration and technology integration.

Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom

Doing Things the Long Way

Posted by  on Wednesday, August 31st 2011     

In many ways, technology can be time saving. Especially if you know the best way to use it!

Yesterday I attended and presented at the 2011 VITTA (Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association) Conference.

One of the sessions I attended was run by Andrew and Beverly from Mitcham Primary School. They gave a terrific presentation about using iPads in the junior primary classroom.

I learnt so much, but one of the simplest tips I took away was that you can sync more than one iPod/iPad at a time. The number of iDevices you can sync is simply limited to the number of USB ports you have.

This is the fourth year I have been using iPod Touches in the classroom and I can’t begin to imagine how many hours I have wasted by syncing the iPods one by one. At one stage I was in charge of updating eight iPod Touches which I did one at a time. I never thought to try to plug more than one in!

idea

Today I was thinking about how people can go on for a very long time “doing things the long way“ with technology. It’s not until you either try to find an easier way or someone tells you that you realise how easy something could be!

I recently informed another teacher that they didn’t have to type in a URL every time they wanted to visit a site, they could simply save it to favourites/bookmarks. This simple tip which is obvious to most of us made this teacher’s day!

I think it is important that we create a culture of sharing not only with our staff but with our students. I like to explicitly teach my students ICT skills, but I also encourage them to share their tips and discoveries with their peers.

If we have a culture of sharing, perhaps we’ll save too many people from “doing things the long way”!

What is something that you used to do the long way until you realised there was a simpler way?

Image attribution: ‘Who Else Has A Bright Idea?’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/27954776@N04/3168683736

category: Conferences, General, iPod, skills
tags: , , ,

Looking Back 2004-2011

Posted by  on Wednesday, August 24th 2011     

I finished university at the end of 2003 and started teaching in January 2004.

Like all graduate teachers, the beginning of my teaching career was a steep learning curve. Fortunately, I felt like I had a lot of role models around me on staff. As I embarked on my career, I remember thinking a lot about what makes a good teacher and what sort of teacher I’d like to be.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much has changed in the past eight years. I know I’ve changed enormously since 2004 but have all teachers? Are those teachers who were role models for me in 2004 still roles models?

Sadly, in the majority of cases, the answer is no. The simple fact is, some teachers are teaching the same as they were in 2004 when the world was a different place.

There is no denying that technology has changed the way we live. So many of the tools I use now in my classroom, professional learning or administration have only come about in the last eight years.

Here are some examples:

  • Interactive whiteboards – I didn’t even see one until about 2007. Now most classrooms in our school are equipped with interactive whiteboards and I use mine for every lesson.
  • iPod Touch – Launched in 2007, I started using iPod Touches in 2008 and they’re regularly integrated into my curriculum.
  • iPad - Launched in 2010, I started using mine in the classroom this year.
  • Edublogs - Launched in 2005, I started blogging in 2008. Edublogs has now reached one million blogs.
  • YouTube - Launched 2005.
  • Twitter - Launched 2006.
  • Flickr - Launched 2004.
  • Facebook - Launched 2004.
  • Diigo - Launched 2006
  • Skype - Launched 2003.

The world had changed so much since I began. Who knows what the next eight years will bring. All I can say is I plan to ride the wave, embrace change, reflect and reinvent!

Image: 'The tube' http://www.flickr.com/photos/16932921@N08/2161046983

Image: 'The tube' http://www.flickr.com/photos/16932921@N08/2161046983

How has your teaching changed since you started in the profession?

category: General, teaching, tools, Web 2.0
tags: , , , ,

15 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers

Posted by  on Wednesday, August 17th 2011     

This post was originally published last year as 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers.

As I regularly help students and other teachers set up their blogs, I find myself giving lots of little tips that I have picked up on my own blogging journey.

My list of tips keeps expanding and I thought it was timely to republish an updated version of this post.

Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.

Here are 10 15 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers

1. Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting and readers won’t be able to keep up. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you.

I advise my students to post no more than once or twice a week, while three times a week works well for my class blog. Decide what works for you.

2. Reply to comments: I am often disappointed by student and adult bloggers who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments, interact with them and they will be encouraged to comment again.

3. Have an “About” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are and what you’re blogging about.

4. Theme changes: Students love playing around with different themes when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.

5. Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.

6. Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box. This simple tool allows readers to find what they’re looking for and means when your posts are no longer on the front page, they won’t be lost.

7. Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.

8. Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.

9. Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs. You have to be part of the blogging community to get the most out of blogging.

10. End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two bloggers are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on etc).

11. Don’t lose your comment: All my students now know how to select all (Control A) and copy (Control C) their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc. Read My grade two student Millie’s post about this tip here.

12. Left align your writing: I used to be guilty of centering all of my text until I realised this is not easy on the eye and not what professional writers do (always good to look to the professionals for guidance when in doubt). Style guides usually suggest that centered text is best for invitations, posters, headings etc.

13. Use paragraphs and sub-headings: As a writer, you need to do as much as you can to make your post easy to read. I am likely to stop reading something that doesn’t have any paragraph breaks. The more your writing is spaced out the better. Having key words or sub heading in bold/colour can also make your post easier on the eye.

14. Don’t copy and paste from MS Word: If you’ve been blogging for a while you may have experienced the dreaded consequence of copying and pasting text from Microsoft Word into a blog post. It is a big no no! Doing this can give you bad code which can ruin the layout of your blog.

If you do want to copy and paste from Word you either need to paste the text into the HTML section of your editor or paste the text into Notepad (or the Mac equivalent) and then copy and paste that text into your post editor. If you want to read more about this, check out Sue Waters’ post here.

15. Stick with it: One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is to give up too easily. Stick with it and reap the rewards!

Are any of these tips new ideas for you?

What other blogging tips can you think of? There must be lots more!

category: Blogging, commenting
tags: , , , , ,

Using an iPod Touch in the Primary Classroom

Posted by  on Monday, August 8th 2011     

2011 is the fourth year I’ve been using an iPod Touch in my classroom. My students enjoy using these hand held devices and they can be used to enhance student learning in many different areas.

In this post I will describe how we set up our iPod Touches and how we use them.

Funding

In 2008, I was successful in applying for a DEECD Emerging Technologies Trial Grant. We purchase 8 iPod Touches and some professional development time.

Since then, our school has budgeted to purchase a small number of iPod Touches.

We generally buy our iPod Touches from BigW and get the lowest memory model.

More than half of the classes at our large primary school now have an iPod Touch in their room.

Equipment

A headphone splitter was purchased for each iPod Touch which allow the device to be used by a group of five students at one time.

BellkinWe got the Belkin RockStar model which cost less than $20. Check out the ITmadeSimple website if you want to purchase some (currently on special for AUD$13.20).

For the first few years of using iPod Touches, I had sets of headphones for each device (not the in-ear style). I slipped each pair of headphones in a plastic pocket so we didn’t need to worry about tangled cords.

These were good but because we used them so regularly, they wore out very quickly.

This year, I asked all parents to provide their child with a set of headphones to keep in their locker tub at school. This has been a terrific solution and the students also use these headphones for our class netbooks.

Logistics

Kelly Jordan and I currently have 4 iPod Touches in our class of 43 students.

470096211

We use our iPod Touches in our reading groups every day. We sometimes use them for small group  maths activities and sometimes allocate individual students time on the iPod Touches for a particular purpose.

We have found that a rotational approach to using iPod Touches works well when you only have one or a small number in your classroom.

While our headphone splitter works well to share one iPod between 5 students when they are listening to stories, podcast or videos, activities that involve apps are better in a 1:1 or 1:2 situation. We have found one way to get around this.

If a group of students were playing an app, they might take it in turns to have a go with the app while also engaged in another related activity. For example, students could be  taking it in turns to play the app Wurdle, while other students play the Boggle board game.

Apps

I usually find my apps by recommendations, searching and reviews.

Sample Apps

Tania Hunt is a teacher at Bellbridge Primary School. She has put together these screenshots of apps she uses on her 3rd gen iPod Touches with her primary students.

This is Tania’s website with links to some great literacy and numeracy resources for the junior primary classroom.

App Reviews

This website contains useful reviews of educational apps.

http://www.iear.org/

iear

Apple in Education

This page on the iTunes website features some apps that can be used in education. If you click on the links, you can see the collection of apps in the iTunes store for a range of different subject areas.

http://www.apple.com/education/apps/ipodtouch-iphone.html

apple

Sample Activities

As well as accessing the wireless internet on the iPod, our grade two students complete a range of activities on the iPod Touches. This is just a small sample.

  • Students listen to various stories.  There are many free story podcasts available from the iTunes store. Some good ones include Storynory and The Story Home. We often have students practise various reading strategies as they are listening such as visualising, tuning in to interesting words (and listing), coming up with questions etc.
  • How-to videos from the howcast site have been stored on the iPod and students have followed the instructions to complete a task (eg. making origami).
  • Students have listened to songs and sequenced cards containing the lyrics to the song.
  • Students listen to a recording of instructions which they must comprehend to draw something or complete a simple task. The recording can by made by a student to practise oral language skills or a teacher.
  • Students have watched short videos (downloaded off YouTube or made in the classroom) and completed various response and comprehension activities.
  • Student created videos and podcasts have been added to the iPod as a way of sharing student work with the rest of the class.

470096217

Other Ideas

Tom Barrett and his readers have put together this slideshow with other ideas about using the iPod Touch in the classroom.


Click here if you can’t see the presentation above.

Final Thoughts

The iPod allows students to learn at their own pace as stories and videos can be paused and replayed many times.

It is a great way to reinforce concepts and encourage independent as well as co-operative group learning.

I have also found the iPod Touch to be engaging for reluctant learners and helpful for students with learning difficulties.

How do you use the iPod Touch in the classroom?

Can you share any apps or activities?

category: iPod, Literacy
tags: , ,

Troubleshooting Computer Problems

Posted by  on Monday, August 1st 2011     

I am a big advocate of training my students to become as independent as possible with technology. Many technology users can get bogged down with “technical issues” which can take away from the benefits of using the tools.

As I have written about before here and here, I try to make my use of ICT explicit to my Grade Two students. While teaching incidental skills, rather than simply instructing, I like to ask the students what they think we should do. I believe that confident users of ICT use their intuition a lot and this is something I want to develop in my students.

With the addition of 20 new netbooks to our classroom, the need for students to be able to troubleshoot their own problems has increased.

I recently made this poster to remind students of the troubleshooting skills we have discussed incidentally.

After going through the poster with the students, it is displayed in various places in the classroom as a constant reminder of how to troubleshoot common computer problems.

For a little bit of humour, I love this cartoon that Kim Confino once published in a blog post.

tech_support_cheat_sheet

What other troubleshooting tips could you add?

How do you teach your students to troubleshoot?

category: General, skills, teaching
tags: , , , ,

RSCON3 – Collaborating with Global Blogging Buddies

Posted by  on Thursday, July 28th 2011     

Want to learn about how my students and I have connected with blogging buddies around the world?

As I have blogged about here, RSCON3 is the third Reform Symposium e-conference for educators.

It is 100% free and is scheduled to be held on July 30th – August 1st, 2011.

My presentation – Connecting with Global Blogging Buddies

Time – 10:30am Saturday 30th July (GMT+10 Melbourne time). Click here to find out what time this is for you.

Where - The session will be held online in Elluminate. Don’t worry if you haven’t used Elluminate before, it’s very straightforward and we’ll help you out. Click on this link to join the room.

Summary - One of the most exciting aspects of educational blogging is making global connections. In this presentation I will discuss how my grade two class came to have many blogging buddies around the world who we collaborate with regularly.

Please spread the word about RSCON3! You can find out about all the other fabulous sessions being held this weekend here.

RSCON3

Will you be attending RSCON3?

category: Blogging, Collaboration, Conferences, Professional Development, Professional learning
tags: , , , ,

Learning to Type

Posted by  on Monday, July 25th 2011     

Over the years, the need for my students to be able to type has become increasingly important.

Being able to type with reasonable speed and accuracy helps students to better cope with the technological world they live in. Students are increasingly going to be held back in their school work, everyday life and future career if they don’t have adequate typing skills.

Of course, we still write with pencil and paper daily in our grade two class and have formal handwriting lesson,s but I find typing lessons and practice is often neglected in the primary curriculum.

Throughout the course of each year, I see a big improvement in students’ typing skills just from the regular practice they have with blogging, however we try to do typing practice where we can. This has become easier with the 20 netbooks and 10 classroom computers we now have in our class of 43 students. Typing practice is now a regular activity in 2KM and 2KJ.

Typing Test

Last week, I had the students take a typing test.

Thanks to @rebeccacarr87 for suggesting 10 Fast Fingers Speed Test which, despite the ads, was perfect for my grade two students. It contained high frequency words and no punctuation. It also gives a simple “words per minute” (wpm) score.

typing2

I wrote the students’ best wpm score on a class list and told them we’ll retest again with the goal of improving by the end of the year. The score range was 4 to 21 with an average score of 9.5 wpm. It will be interesting to see how they improve. I only wish I had thought to test them at the beginning of the year!

Teachers of older students might find this Typing Speed Test more useful as it contains more complex paragraphs including punctuation. This test gives a speed and accuracy score.

Typing1

Online Typing Activities

I have put together a collection of free, online typing games for my students into this Sqworl.

The link is http://sqworl.com/9r5u8p

Typing sqworl

Feel free to use it with your students too!

Lessons Vs Practice

I like to give my students a mix of formal tuition in typing as well as practice time.

How people get to the point of being able to touch type is something that interests me. I learnt “by doing” while my colleague, Kelly Jordan learnt through formal lessons, however we both got to the same place as proficient touch typists.

If you consider yourself a touch typist, I am interested to hear how you learnt to type. Did you learn by doing or did you learn through formal touch typing lessons?  Please complete this quick poll!


How do you approach typing lessons and practice with your students?


Do you know of any other good typing websites?

category: General, links, skills, tools, Typing
tags: , , , ,

Blogging with Very Young Students

Posted by  on Tuesday, July 19th 2011     

As most readers will know, blogging is a big part of my Grade Two classroom. Over the past few years I have worked out strategies and processes to make blogging work for my seven and eight year old students.

While my students are young, I have found with explicit instructions, high expectations, clear routines, parent involvement and peer tutoring they can achieve amazing things with blogging and ICT.

I have been asked a number of time whether blogging can work with students younger than Grade Two. The answer is yes.

In my class we follow this process throughout the year, starting with students learning about quality commenting before moving on to posts and finally earning their own blog.

blogging progression

While younger students might not move along this continuum as quickly, they too can do amazing things. There are so many students around the world as young as five who are gaining the benefits of being involved in educational blogging.

I thought I would include links to just a few Prep (aka Kindergarten/Reception) and Grade One blogs but as you can see, this list is quite long and definitely not exhaustive!

Prep and Grade One Blogs:

Learning Together – Mrs Kennedy’s Prep Class in Blackburn South Melbourne.

Discovery Den – Miss W’s Prep Class in Melbourne.

We Love Learning – Prep S’s Class in Blackburn South Melbourne.

Room 2 Rockets – Miss Revell’s Grade One/Two class in New Zealand.

A4 – Good Things Come in Small Packages – Prep/One class in Auckland, New Zealand.

A3 – All Things Great and Small – Year One class in Auckland, New Zealand.

Mrs Cassidy’s Classroom Blog – Mrs Cassidy’s Grade One class in Canada.

Open the Door to B4 – Mrs McKenzie’s Prep/One/Two class in New Zealand.

Grade 1B and 1C - Miss Hunichen and Mrs Hollands’ Grade One blog in New Gisborne, Victoria.

Grade 1/2′s Epsom – Mrs Davey’s Grade One/Two class in Epsom, Victoria.

Look What’s Happening in Room 102 – Mrs Lynch’s Grade One class in Quebec, Canada.

Mrs W and Prep/One/Two @ Harston Primary – A class in Harston, Victoria.

Prep Learning Unit – A Prep blog from Bellaire PS in Victoria.

A Peek Inside - Mrs Dowling’s Prep/One blog in New South Wales.

Miss Dunsiger’s Class – Links to Miss Dunsiger’s Grade One’s individual student blogs (2010).

Trish’s Troops 1TD – Grade One class in Ballarat, Victoria.

Many of these classes have found different ways to make blogging work for them. Some of these strategies include:

  • Getting parents involved – A blog is something that parents can sit down and comment on with their child at home. Blogs can create a bridge between home and school. There is numerous research which suggests that family participation in learning is one of the most accurate predictors of a child’s success in school and beyond. I have written more about getting parents involved in blogging here.
  • Using lots of visuals and multimedia - Emergent readers can connect and contribute to the blog with voice recordings, videos, slideshows, VoiceThreads etc.
  • Having student quotes in posts (typed by the teacher) – These comments are colour coded so beginner readers know which colour comment is theirs when they go home and show their parents. The example below is from the Prep Discovery Den blog.

RoomW comments

What other great class blogs do you know of with students in their first two years of school?

What other tips do you have for blogging with very young students?

category: Blogging, Social Media, teaching
tags: , , ,

Blogging and Students with Austism Spectrum Disorders

Posted by  on Friday, July 15th 2011     

When I first started blogging with my class in 2008, I thought it would be a bit of fun and a good way to communicate with parents.

Over the years, I have come to realise that the benefits are much more than this and the more benefits I unravel, the more I am encouraged to make blogging a priority in my classroom.

I have written about the benefits of blogging here, but this diagram (which is not exhaustive) summarises just some of the key benefits.

benefits of blogging 2

I have recently been reflecting on another benefit for certain students, after a number of discussions with parents.

A parent’s perspective

Over the past few years I have taught a number of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and observed how much a number of them enjoyed blogging.

One parent recently explained to me why she thinks blogging works for her son who has Asperger’s Syndrome.

Social Skills

Blogging has helped with his social skills, as not only does he interact with me whilst writing comments, replies and now posts he also has to think of appropriate ways to respond to questions, comments and the post. He also has a structure that he follows starting off with complimenting, which he struggles with due to his ASD, but since blogging I have seen an improvement. He then looks at the information they have written and tries to think of a way to engage the other person, this is also hindered by ASD, but again I have seen an improvement.

Pragmatic Language Difficulties

Blogging allows him to be social without having to take pragmatic language into account, it also allows him to practice his skills in a non-threatening manner (not in front of others).

Confidence

Blogging has given him a way to engage with others as they speak to him at school about what he has written and give him praise about being a good blogger which helps with his confidence.

Leadership

He has also been able to put social skills into practice when assisting others with blogging.

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In a similar way, I have seen students without ASD but who are simply shy, quiet or lacking confidence really blossom through having a blog or working on the class blog. Students who have previously gone somewhat “under the radar” have found their voice and developed confidence by being a blogger.

While some people may be quick to say that blogging and online social media can inhibit social skills, I see blogging as a terrific starting point. It can help certain individuals to practice their skills and transfer them into the “offline world”.

************

There is no denying that they way we approach blogging in our class is highly structured and I think this works well for many students with ASD (and many other students). One example of this is the way we teach and encourage quality commenting which I see as contributing to the high standard of literacy skills my students are demonstrating.

Note – I am not claiming to be an expert with ASDs or suggesting all individuals with ASD would respond to blogging but for a number of students I have taught, I have found it to be an effective tool that is well worth pursuing.

Have you had any experience working with students with ASD and technology?

What do you think about using online technologies to develop offline skills?

category: Blogging, parents, Social Media, teaching, Web 2.0
tags: , , , ,

All About Twitter Hashtags

Posted by  on Thursday, June 30th 2011     

After writing my Teacher Challenge guest post on using Twitter to build your PLN, I was asked by a number of people about hashtags.

I know when I first started using Twitter, it took me a little while to get my head around what the # symbol meant. This is a handy feature of Twitter that is worth learning about.

What is a hashtag?

The # symbol + a word/acronym in a tweet is called a hashtag. It is used to categorise a tweet into a topic or keyword. Hashtags are not created by Twitter but by Twitter users.

hashtag

Why use hashtags?

There are so many tweets flying around at any one time that they can get lost in the crowd.

If you click on a hashtagged word in any tweet, you can find a list of other tweets with that hashtag. Whether or not you’re friends with someone, you can find their hashtagged tweet (as long as their profile is public). If you add a hashtag to a tweet, your tweet can potentially reach a larger audience.

Hashtags can help you connect with people who have similar interests. For example, you might be doing the Daily 5 literacy program in your classroom but you might not know any other people on Twitter who are also using that program. You could go to the Twitter website and put #daily5 into the search box to find a list of tweets from people tweeting about this subject.

daily5 hashtag

If you use a desktop application like TweetDeck, you can add a column with all the tweets on #daily5 so you don’t miss anything.

In TweetDeck just click on the + sign at the top of your screen and then put #daily5 (or your favourite hashtag) into the search box. Alternatively, you can click on a hashtag in any tweet in TweetDeck and a column with all the tweets with that hashtag will be added.

Hashtag etiquette

Most Twitter guides suggest one, two or three hashtags is a good amount to use. Any more than three hashtags can take away from the content of your tweet.

Where do you put hashtags?

Hashtags can replace a word in a tweet or be tacked on to the end of a tweet. Sometimes people put a hashtag at the start of their tweet to preface their message with the subject.

where to put the hashtag

Who makes up hashtags?

Hashtags are community driven. You can create any hashtag you like as long as members of your community or professional learning network (PLN) know about it and agree to use that hashtag.

To avoid using a hashtag that is already being used, it is advisable to search for that hashtag first. Things can get confusing if your hashtag is being used by another group! http://hashtags.org/ is a useful website to find out about hashtags being used.

The lighter side of hashtags

More and more people seem to use one-off random hashtags to add a humourous element to their tweet. You definitely don’t want to overdo this but they can add a little fun to your interactions with others.

hashtag humour

Conference backchannelling

Most conferences these days have a hashtag. This will generally be advertised prior to the event and allows people to connect their tweets about the conference before, during and after the event.

A hashtag can be used for a conference backchannel. Backchannelling allows conference participants to engage in an online discussion about what they are seeing, hearing and learning. It allows passive audience members to become active. Sometimes, people who can’t make a conference will also get involved in a backchannel by following the hashtag.

If you’re on Twitter you might have seen many tweets flying around with the #ISTE11 hashtag recently. This hashtag allowed participants at the ISTE conference in Philadelphia to connect while also giving a running commentary to non-participants.

hashtag iste

Tweet chats

Usually, conversations on Twitter are interspersed with gaps of time while people come online and offline. Some people plan times when everyone is online to engage in a live chat about a certain topic. These are often called “tweet chats” and are defined with a hashtag.

One of the most well known tweet chats in the ed tech world is #edchat. Each week there is a different topic and up to 2000 people from around the world get together and have a focussed conversation.

You can use a client like TweetChat to converse in real time or you can simply add a column with the hashtag search to TweetDeck or whatever Twitter application you prefer.

Anyone can organise their own live tweet chat. Just come up with a hashtag, a time and a topic, and get your PLN on board!

Archiving conversations

If you want to keep an archive of hashtagged conversations from a conference or tweet chats, there are some websites that make it easy to do this. Try Keepstream or Twapper Keeper.

Trending topics

You may be aware that Twitter is often the first place to break news as it happens. Twitter has an algorithm to work out which topics or hashtags are the hottest topics or trends right now.

If you go to the Twitter homepage, you can see a list of trending topics or trends. There might be hashtags there that you want to follow! These aren’t all hashtags but if you click on any of the trends, it will take you to search results of tweets about the topic.

These trends can change by the minute.

hashtag trends

Some education hashtags to try

Now you know all about hashtags, why not try adding some to your tweets?

#vicpln – for teachers in Victoria, Australia

#Ultranet – discussion about the online portal for teachers in Victoria, Australia

#edtech – anyone interested in educational technology

#comments4kids – a way for students and teachers to find blogs to comment on and to get their own posts commented on (find more here).

#elearning – anyone interested in elearning

#elemchat – this is a live chat for elementary (primary) teachers but is also used for general discussions (find out more here).

#RSCON3 – this is the hashtag for the upcoming online PD that I discussed in this post.

Find more popular education hashtags here.

What hashtags do you use?

Do you have any other tips about using hashtags?

category: Collaboration, Professional Development, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
tags: , ,
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