These are the slides of a Teaching and Learning session I gave on 21 April 2016.

1. Critical engagement with
Twitter and its potential use in
teaching
Christian Bokhove
April 21st 2016
#tlsoton

2. 2
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/comment/the-books-
every-university-leader-should-read
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3. Ouch
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4. Thanks
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5. This seminar: explore why
Twitter might be useful in
the academic environment
for teaching and learning. I
might add some activities
and you are invited to join
in, *if you want*. I rely
heavily on examples from
*my* experience.
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6. I personally think that, if you
have a device with you, and
you want to try out Twitter and
how it works, trying out during
this session is great! But it is
not a workshop.
In tweets use the hashtag
#tlsoton
I’ll demo this as well
https://twitter.com/signup
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7. Assumptions
• Assuming limited experience with Twitter. So if you
have, you might know much of this already
• I tweet everything mixed up but some only use it
professionally. Your choice.
• Grey area: T&L meets Research. For example, if
you teach “current issues in education” you can get
a lot of relevant information through twitter. So I’ll
mix it up as well.
• I try not to be an evangelist. Just see if it works for
YOU.
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8. My Twitter History
• Twitter since 2009
• Was ‘heaviest Twitter user local politics’ 2010
• Cold Turkey: removed account
• Started again in 2010
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9. http://is.gd/talsoton
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10. 10
https://twitter.com/cbokhove
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11. Profile
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12. What
is
Twitter?
is Twitter?
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13. Twitter is a social network which
allows users to exchange public
messages of 140 characters or
less. These are known as Tweets.
It’s easy to tweet, via:
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14. Tweets can be text-based or contain
multimedia such as images or video,
and links to anything online.
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15. Twitter is
becoming
somewhat less
popular now
Decline mainly in
youths
15
Source: http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
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16. Key
terms
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17. Tweet: your tweet is your message. 140
characters. Tweets can be seen by:
a: your followers who happen to be online at
the time and
b: anyone who happens to look at your
profile, and potentially
c: by the followers of anyone who ReTweets
it.
Tweet
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18. ReTweet
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ReTweet: if you RT someone else’s tweet,
it will appear in your timeline and your
followers can see it. Being ReTweeted
exposes your ideas to new networks.
Mind you, sometimes RT you just
because…well…because. Some are keen
to add “no endorsement”
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19. @reply: you can converse directly with
someone by putting their username
(beginning with @) into your tweet – this
will ensure the tweet shows up in their ‘@
replies’.
Your tweets will be seen by anyone
following both you AND the person with
whom you’re conversing. With a . In front
they will be broadcast as ‘normal tweet’
Reply with @
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20. Hashtag: a #hashtag is a way to bring
together disparate users on the same topic,
without the users needing to know each other
already. Hashtags can also be a way to
archive conversations on a theme, and
discuss events or conferences.
You can click on any #hashtag (for example
#tlsoton) and find all recent tweets which have
included it. This is the best way to tweet
around a specific module (or academic topic).
Hashtag
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21. Direct Messages and likes
Direct Message: a DM is a private message,
within the network, which only you and the
recipient see.
Likes: used to be ‘favorites’ with a star symbol
but now have become ‘hearts’.
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22. Pinning tweets
In a teaching context you might want to ‘pin’ a link to
a course blog.
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23. Sometimes discussions get out of hand
• Block
• Mute
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24. Back to the first poll also could tweet
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25. Can be done within Twitter as well
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26. Managing timelines: Tweetdeck
26https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ #tlsoton

27. Whyeven use
Twitter?
Hat Tip to this presentation
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28. Connecting with peers
Twitter is a good
networking tool – for
finding researchers with
similar interests, for
keeping in touch after
conferences, for finding
and engaging the leaders
in your field.
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29. Keeping up to date
If you follow the right people on Twitter you will know
when and where relevant papers are published, when
calls for papers announced, when conferences are
happening, when developments in your field (including
policy changes) are occurring, when new technology
emerges which is relevant to what you do, whether
someone has made/used some resources that you might
use and what’s going on in HE.
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30. Sharing information
You can tell Twitter about your research
outputs, your current projects, your
professional activities, teaching (but also
personal stuff).
It can also be a promotional tool for all your
other social media activities too –get
people reading your blog and other outlets
by tweeting about it.
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31. #tlsoton 31
http://storify.com/professor_dave/academic-use-of-twitter-
acadtwitter

32. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocials
ciences/2011/09/02/academic-
tweeters-your-suggestions-in-full/ #tlsoton 32

33. @unisouthampton
is the main account of the University
@timeshighered
is the Times Higher’s very active account
@lseimpactblog
is the LSE Impact Blog’s account
@gdnhighered
is the Guardian’s Higher Education account
Build outlets to follow e.g.
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34. Learning and teaching
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35. Using a hashtag for the
module provide further
reading suggestions,
interesting links to related
content, additional
assignments for keen
students, reminders about
deadlines, clarifications and
answers to questions, third-
party opinions and stories.
1) Support module
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e.g. colleagues Dr. Lisa Harris and
others with the #uosm2008 tag

36. #tlsoton 36
Can also be resources #AskTwitter

37. “The backchannel… Allows students
to ask questions, emboldens them,
allows them to share with each other.
You can poll them during the
session.
High risk, high reward.”
There is a tension between
‘academic’ vs. ‘personal’
2) Enhance a session
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38. “Excellent for postgrads who
aren’t on campus – but also for all
students, to have regular
interaction outside the scheduled
lectures and seminars.”
For example, study groups.
3) Keep in touch
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39. #tlsoton 39
More
interesting
slides
by Ned
here

40. Otheruseful (?)
things done
with twitter
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41. Tweetbeam
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42. Socioviz
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43. Access communities with hashtags
e.g. #phdchat,
#mathscpdchat,
#bbcqt,
#rEd
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44. If this then that
Service that can link different applications e.g. if you blog
automatically tweet
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https://ifttt.com/

45. Get quick service from customer services
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46. Linking twitter to Arduino/hardware
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47. Fun
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48. Some take away points
• See if Twitter can be something for you, it has had for me.
• But usefulness depends on your aims. Don’t do it just for
the sake of innovation but because you can get something
out of it.
• Sometimes you don’t know this upfront. Just try.
• Sometimes a ‘show of hands’ is more efficient than an
online poll.
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49. • Can be sending AND receiving.
• Personal or professional or both
• Discussion for teaching: I think personal fine as well, some
say ‘separate account’
• Often people already carry devices that can use it e.g.
Twitter apps
• YOU are in control (e.g. “afraid it’s going to take more
time”)
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50. • Easy to look up content related to the subject
• When you follow the ‘right people’ you get a lot of
interesting information quickly
• Engage in discussions (but also be careful there)
• Only useful if you use it
• Tell people you tweet by advertising your ‘handle’
@cbokhove
• Can also link Twitter to other applications e.g. blog,
Blackboard, Linkedin
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51. We need a final picture?
• Picture taken at end of session
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52. Any questions,
comments, ideas,
plans
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Source image: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-
image.php?image=34596&picture=question-mark

53. Thanks!
Contact: C.Bokhove@soton.ac.uk
Twitter:
@cbokhove
These slides will be online on
slideshare. I’ll tweet the link ;-)
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