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Hi everyone, I'm a freelance English language teacher and thought I'd share an example of how I've used twitter for CPD in the past. I participated in a 10 day Twitter course in 2013 and wrote a very informal, reflective blog post about my experience. I use Twitter regularly to connect with fellow teachers, to keep up-to-date with ELT related things, for research and for CPD. This Twitter course is still available for use.

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It was through a Google+ contact that I heard about this online course: 10 days of Twitter

This course was developed and piloted by Helen Webster (@ scholastic_rat), who's generously allowed it to be reused under a Creative Commons License (CC BY NC SA). After having clicked on the link and read about the course, I decided to register. Although I use Twitter regularly for personal and professional reasons, I felt that there was room for improvement.You never know what tips you'll pick up from this kind of course and naturally from links and resources shared by other participants. I was particularly curious about how this kind of format would work and whether or not I could do something similar with my own students or fellow teachers.
The content was delivered via the blog LD5D in the form of a brief post and it was here that instructions were given for activities. So there were two places for interaction and support: the blog and Twitter. I think a real advantage was gained from having some experienced users participate, which meant there was a kind of built-in back-up support system in place. This also reflects how Twitter is used by many. So what was it like?

Reflection

Setting up an account: I have an account and hence, was a step ahead with many others. The blog tips were useful concerning, profile picture, finding your voice, whether you want to link Twitter and Facebook or not. A few of these points generated conversation between participants and some mentioned that it made them reflect on their online identity. As the day proceeded I received a few tweets from people who I know from the Open University, from Google+ and privately, which immediately made me feel at home. A successful first day and something to be gained by all.

What are you tweeting about? Useful tips here and practical. I tend to share links relating to English language teaching. They are often resources that I save to my Scoop.it pages. From these curation pages I am able to directly share with my Twitter followers. No extra work involved, just a click and it's distributed via other social media. On day 2, we were also asked to tweet a specific message and were told we'd find out later what the purpose of this was. This broke the ice and prompted interaction.

So what's all this about followers? It was helpful to read through the pointers given, as well as suggested hashtags to follow. Learned something knew here too. I'd never heard of #FF before # Follow Friday, where you can recommend people who you feel are worth following to others. The notion of following people is significant if you want to engage with others in dialogue, or keep abreast of developments in your field. This is after all where you source your information. So thinking about what you want to get out of Twitter should help guide your choice.

This was all about messages to people and how little tricks can help you reach a broader audience. The most obvious way is to click the reply button to respond directly to another Twitter user. But knowing how to vary the degree of visibility, is not so apparent. I was aware that placing a username (@trishiels) in the middle of a message reaches a wider audience, but not, that placing a full stop before the @, has the same effect. Something for me to keep in mind. The #LD10DoT participants were quite active today and engaged in dialogue. Good to see people interacting and not just posting links that inevitably get carried away on the information production line.

Half way mark reached. The tips today really help to save on Twitter-space. I use Twitter to share resources but also to source information that I'm interested in and I particularly enjoy it when I meet other people. However, sharing links can mean long URLs. Fortunately we can shorten them. The #LD10DoT team supplied us with a list of helpful tools that do the job efficiently. I'm already using tinyurl and bitly, but hadn't heard of Ow.ly. This site links to files, photos and videos can be added.

A useful reminder given today as well. Don't just churn out links. Add a personal comment, such as, why you think it's of interest, or whether you have another opinion to share. I think this helps to sort out the humans from the robots!

Started the day by learning something new: MT. I'm familiar with retweeting (RT) and its conventions, but somewhere along the line I managed to skip the netiquette associated with modifying tweets (MT). Have to admit that I've RT'd people and cut back their quotes without acknowledging that I've made slight changes. Well now I know and will be more careful.

Some useful reminders about hashtags, especially in relation to conferences e.g. good idea to check that what you are releasing publicly, via Twitter, is in fact meant to go public. Hashtags can cop a bit of criticism, especially when overused in a post. Nevertheless, they do serve their purpose i.e they locate groups for you and ensure that your tweet sticks to the right path.

Within my context, English language teaching (ELT), the #ELTchat is an open discussion that occurs every Wednesday. The topics are planned in advance and the results are provided as a blog post afterwards. A great way of following topics of interest and concerns related to ELT.

Hashtags make sense.

So what do you do with all that information and all those people in Twitterland? Create lists and use applications such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. I've been using Tweetdeck for a while now and haven't bothered with lists, but do see the potential. For example, if you want to curate specific content it's all in the one place, which alleviates access.

An advantage of using an application like Tweetdeck is being able to maintain order, as well as providing a clear overview of activity. The LD5D posting today, reminded me to make more use of the time-setting possibility in Tweetdeck, particularly for business accounts. Planning in advance is a more efficient use of time. You can schedule posts to be released at times that you feel are the most appropriate for your audience.

Numerous tips today about navigating around your personal Twitter menu and managing information. We were invited to play with a few third party applications such as Pocket, Flipboard, News.me and Paper.li. I ended up choosing Pocket and added a bookmarklet to my Mac and downloaded an app for my iPhone and iPad. Let's see how many links I really read after storing them away for later perusal.

The 10th and final day. This brought closure to this interesting 10 day course about Twitter. The final post provided us with sensible tips concerning what to do with past and future tweets. I like the idea of using Storify to create a narrative. This is something I could put to use with my own students. The tool TAGSexplorer is also an interesting way of creating a visualization. Scheduling via Tweetdeck, as I mentioned above, is a feature I make use of for business, but I wouldn't use if for my personal tweets.

I'm pleased I signed up for this 10 day course. I picked up numerous tips and tricks along the way and also met some interesting people. It was a great refresher course which only took a few minutes a day. The format impressed me. The #LD10DoT's blog served as a central meeting point to deliver content but Twitter is where the majority of the dialogue and interaction took place.
This format is something that I'll be able to reciprocate with fellow teachers and language students. I think sometimes we tend to overcomplicate learning design. For me this was an excellent example of how to keep it simple. I feel that this course design was a suitable and effective approach for this particular purpose.

Thank you to the # LD10DoT team for all your efforts and for allowing this course to be reused.

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It was through a Google+ contact that I heard about this online course: 10 days of Twitter This course was developed and piloted by Helen Webster (@ scholastic_rat), who's generously allowed it to be reused under a Creative Commons License (CC BY NC SA).

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How do you manage workload with Twitter?Especially having access to it 24/7, and with students expecting continuous interaction

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Twitter professional development as assemblage(s) Online narrative frame questionnaire Opportunities and challenges Twitter data New thinking on workshop design and research A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) Grounded Theory in a post-structuralist context Social Network Analysis Key concepts Research questions Challenges Interviews Part-time & freelance language teachers Rhizome Assemblage (Agencement) Becoming ....

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These are the resources Alessia, Eleanor and Martina used in the symposium of 24 Aug 2017

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These are the resources Alessia, Eleanor and Martina used in the symposium of 24 Aug 2017

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with difficulty! If you use Twitter for your own research and networking and you are on it anyway, it is fine. If not, you need to manage student expectation from the start and throughout your activity - as you would email response times.

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Alessia Plutino - Longer version with more language focused examples and explanations 

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Alessia Plutino - Longer version with more language focused examples and explanations 

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JISC Change Agents Network: students as partners for change:

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JISC Change Agents Network: students as partners for change:

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https://can.jiscinvolve.org/wp/webinars-upcoming-webinars-and-recordings-of-past-webinars/webinar-recording-and-presentation-links/

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An article written by Eleanor and her students on Mission Employable

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An article written by Eleanor and her students on Mission Employable

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https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/207

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Alessia Plutino- This is a paper I wrote about using another MKO different from teacher within Twitter and explains the thinking behind it: remember, we are only facilitators, AWAKENERS, let them do the work... give them purposeful tools >

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Alessia Plutino- This is a paper I wrote about using another MKO different from teacher within Twitter and explains the thinking behind it: remember, we are only facilitators, AWAKENERS, let them do the work... give them purposeful tools >

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Alessia Plutino -students do not tend to have expectations UNLESS you set them > what I did was ENGAGING with them PURPOSEFULLY, only and if i thought it would benefit them (all) in terms of feedback > so i was not replying to all their tweets but would reply to more significant ones in terms of content and language learning point of view and leave them to interact amongst themselves.

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Alessia Plutino -students do not tend to have expectations UNLESS you set them > what I did was ENGAGING with them PURPOSEFULLY, only and if i thought it would benefit them (all) in terms of feedback > so i was not replying to all their tweets but would reply to more significant ones in terms of content and language learning point of view and leave them to interact amongst themselves.

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Here is a podcast interview I recorded about the #mfltwitterati

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1:03:03 mins
01 July 2015

Joe Dale is an independent consultant who works with a range of organisations such as Network for Languages, ALL, The British Council, the BBC, Skype, Microsoft and The Guardian. He is host of the TES MFL forum, Vital MFL Portal Manager for the Open University, former SSAT Languages Lead Practitioner, a regular conference speaker and recognised expert on technology and language learning. He has spoken at conferences and run training courses in Europe, North America, the Far East and Australia.

Joe was key in updating the ICT elements of the QCDA SoW for KS2 Primary French; he also designed games for Heinemann's 'Expo'. Joe has featured in several Education Guardian articles and has himself both written for and been quoted by the TES. Joe has also written for the TES ICT blog and produced video tutorials for the CILT 14-19 website. Joe recently starred on a Teachers TV programme and has spoken about the Rose Review proposals on BBC Radio 4. His blog www.joedale.typepad.com has been nominated for four Edublog Awards and he is responsible for setting up the Twitter Modern Foreign Languages community MFL Twitterati and tweets at @JoeDale. He was also shortlisted for the NAACE Impact Award 2013 for Curriculum Support.

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Twitter: A Powerful Collaborative Tool for Teachers

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1:03:03 mins 01 July 2015 Joe Dale is an independent consultant who works with a range of organisations such as Network for Languages, ALL, The British Council, the BBC, Skype, Microsoft and The Guardian.

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Here is a Storify of crowdsourced examples of use of iPads in the languages classroom from members of the #mfltwitterati https://storify.com/joedale/ipads-in-mfl

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Here is a PDF guide I created about the MFLTwitterati, a 5000 strong community of language teachers from the UK and Ireland who like to shar good practice on a daily basis tinyurl.com/mfltwitteratiguide

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“Thanks to Twitter, the hashtag has become an important linguistic shortcut.”—Lindsay Zoladz (Pitchfork, 2014)

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“Thanks to Twitter, the hashtag has become an important linguistic shortcut.”—Lindsay Zoladz (Pitchfork, 2014)

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Editor's note: This post has been updated to include the 2017 conference hashtags.

"Thanks to Twitter, the hashtag has become an important linguistic shortcut."

- Lindsay Zoladz (Pitchfork, 2014)

On the web, millions of teachers worldwide connect to share support and resources. If you are in search of activities, resources, or support for a lesson, then you'll want to know where these teachers share ideas online.

Hashtags, the words you see around the web with number (#) signs in front of them, are the key to finding and sharing resources online. You don't have to belong to social networks to benefit from hashtags. You can do a search for a hashtag on Google and find public streams of information on Twitter and other sites.

Below are a list of fantastic hashtags for English language teachers. Click and begin exploring and connecting today!

According to Hashtagify, the following are some of the most used hashtags among English language teachers. Discover free resources, bloggers, apps, activities and news about teaching your language learners. The hashtags to follow are #ESL, #TESOL, #TEFL, #EFL, #ELT, #duallang, #ELLs, and #ELL. Other great hashtags with useful resources include #CLIL, #Grammar, and #Idioms.

#Twinglish, #EngPls, #LearnALanguage, #StudyEnglish, and #LearnEnglish are hashtags used by English language learners around the world. Sometimes you will find tweets in other languages.

Try any of the following hashtags for resources specific to a test or age group.

Use the hashtags #BusinessEnglish and #BESIG to discover resources related to teaching Business English.

Use the hashtags #YoungLearners and #YLTSig to discover resources related to teaching young learners.

Use the hashtags #EAP, #TLEAP, #BALEAP to find resources related to teaching English for Academic Purposes.

Supporting learners in their different tests or taking a test? Try #IELTS, #TOEFL, #TOEIC, and #CELTA.

If you're looking to connect with other English language teachers and bloggers, then try joining a Twitter chat. We recommend these great Twitter chats:

#ELTChat takes place every Wednesday at 12 pm and 9 pm GMT. Follow this great guide to participating in a Twitter Chat posted on the ELTChat site.

#ELLChat takes place on Mondays at 9 pm ET.

#Duallangchat takes place the first Sunday of each month at 6 pm PST / 8 pm CST.

Get to know the teachers, authors, vendors, and events at the conferences you attend. Following the conference hashtag is a great way to keep up with what is happening at conferences, including any freebies or tips about navigating the city. You can also share your presentation time and materials to a much wider audience. If you are looking for tweet-ups (face-to-face meetings of Twitter users), then knowing the hashtag is a must!

Two of the most followed conference hashtags are for the TESOL International Conference and IATEFL. The TESOL International conference takes place March 21-24 in Seattle, Washington. Attendees and the organization share information with the hashtags #TESOL2017 and #TESOL17. (The ESL Library team will be there, so be sure to visit the booth.)

The IATEFL conference takes place April 4-7 in Glasgow, Scotland. Use the hashtag #IATEFL to keep up with the latest news and events.

There are many other conferences with hashtags. To discover conferences and events in different countries try #ASIAELT, #AUSELT, #KELTChat (Korean ELT), #JALT, and #JALTCALL.

Canada has a few hashtags for English language teachers, which include #TESLCanada, #TESLToronto, #BCTEAL, and #LINCChat.

What are your favorite hashtags?

If you want to receive more of Shelly's tips for online resources for teaching English, then subscribe!

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The Ultimate Hashtag Guide for English Language Teachers

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Editor's note: This post has been updated to include the 2017 conference hashtags. "Thanks to Twitter, the hashtag has become an important linguistic shortcut." - Lindsay Zoladz (Pitchfork, 2014) On the web, millions of teachers worldwide connect to share support and resources.

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If a classroom gets iPads, a question you will often hear immediately is, "What apps should I download?" In our concern for machines taking over education, we often do things that encourage machines to take over our teaching. I have been privy to seeing many educators use "flashcard" apps with students, not because they see it as a better process, but because they feel they need to justify iPads in their classroom by using them (the device) in some way with their students. This is often because devices are thrust onto educators without much thought and support on what is possible to do with them and how this aligns with the vision of the community.

I always ask educators to think, "What could you create with this iPad that you couldn't create before?" Focusing on what we can "create" versus what we "consume" only, is a great starting point. It is not that consumption and content isn't important. It is just that both consumption and creation should be evident in education for true deep learning.

Technology accelerates everything, including bad practice in education. Have you ever heard of scantrons? To me, they are often accelerated bad practice. Now if you use a scantron to mark some assessment here and there, I do not think that you are a bad teacher. If you use it all of the time for everything you do, I would be concerned. While we are asking kids to think deeply and critically in schools today, if what they are doing can be summarized in a bubble sheet, then I think we are missing the mark. Again, there are no absolutes, but we should always look at how what we do and what we say corresponds in our classrooms and schools.

I created this image after I wrote, " The Innovator's Mindset ", and it is meant to spur on conversations on where innovation in education really starts:

If you notice where the process begins, with the question, "What is best for this learner?" Starting backward from there helps us move forward from the student, not necessarily the teacher. I have encouraged people to understand that every "best practice" in education was once an innovation. Someone said, "What we are doing is not working for our students", and subsequently did something different that worked for students.

This is NOT to say that you shouldn't use technology with your students. Technology allows us to do things that we couldn't do without it. It is just that we should be asking, "What would best serve our students?", not "How do I work this device into my classroom setting?" Using technology in your classroom does not make you innovative; what your students do, create, and learn, because of the work that happens in our schools and classrooms, will always be the measure to which we should determine if we are truly moving forward to successfully serve our students.

Using technology in your classroom does not make you innovative; what your students do, create, and learn, because of the work that happens in schools and classrooms, will always be the measure to which we should determine if we are truly moving forward to successfully serve our students.

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Using Technology Doesn't Make You Innovative

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If a classroom gets iPads, a question you will often hear immediately is, "What apps should I download?" In our concern for machines taking over education, we often do things that encourage machines to take over our teaching.

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Global Digital Citizen Foundation's Resources on Using Twitter for Learning and Teaching

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Global Digital Citizen Foundation's Resources on Using Twitter for Learning and Teaching

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twitter Archives | Global Digital Citizen Foundation

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This padlet is for sharing resources about practice and research on Twitter for language learning, teaching and professional development.

Everyone is welcome to contribute!

This is also our attempt to connect #EuroCALL2017 conference participants and remote participants, who cannot attend

Alessia, Eleanor & Martina
(@APlutino, @eleanorquince, @MartinaEmke)

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Twitter sample lessons on the ECML inventory

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Twitter sample lessons on the ECML inventory

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Searchable database of (free) resources & lesson plans for language teaching and learning

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This website presents a web inventory of online, interactive materials with a search engine filtering tools according to language skills, type of interaction, principal functions, etc. In addition, a MOODLE workspace for learning more about using online tools in the classroom is available.

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european centre for modern languages (ecml)

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centre européen pour les langues vivantes (celv)

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ECML/CELV > ECML-Programme > Programme 2012-2015 > ICT-REV and moreDOTS > ICT

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This website presents a web inventory of online, interactive materials with a search engine filtering tools according to language skills, type of interaction, principal functions, etc. In addition, a MOODLE workspace for learning more about using online tools in the classroom is available.

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by @jeffcarpenter, @scomorrison, @ElonIndia and @evangatti