Using Social Media (Twitter) in the Classroom

Using Social Media in AST 1002 Descriptive Astronomy

Being able to use social media in the workplace is becoming a necessity.  As such, you are required to use Twitter in this course.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a freeonline microblogging service that enables users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets."  A tweet can include links to blogs, articles, videos, photos, etc…  You can access Twitter from virtually any computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.  It is important to remember that all tweets are public and readable by anyone.  If you access Twitter using cellular plan (3G or 4G) standard text message rates may apply depending on your plan.  Accessing Twitter via Wi-Fi is free.

To begin, you need to sign up for Twitter.  Please use your SFSC username as your Twitter username.  That way, I can easily recognize your tweets and give you credit.  If it is already taken, just add some numbers or letters at the end of it.  If you are already signed up for Twitter you can either change your current username or create a second account just for this class.  Don’t worry about following other people right now, unless you want to.

Sign up for Twitter

 Go to: www.Twitter.com

                   Here is a video to show you how: http://youtu.be/Wk2DdavUQs8

Note:   If you find a better video about Twitter or perhaps make one of your own, please send me a link to it.

Example:  My username is christeeSFSC.  I had to add the letters “SFSC” at the end because someone had already used my SFSC username of “christee.” 

Note: Twitter adds the “at” symbol (@) to the front of your username to make it my account name.  Thus mine is @christeeSFSC. 

OPTIONAL (just for fun):  If you would like to create an avatar (cartoon) image of yourself rather than post an actual photo, here is an article discussing ten different avatar creators:  http://bit.ly/6Lk0ru

I created this avatar image of myself:

How we will use Twitter in this class

Each week, before 8:00 AM Monday, you are to tweet what you thought was the most important concept that was covered in the textbook or class from the previous week.  Remember, tweets are limited to 140 characters (not words!).  To make it easy to rapidly find your tweet for the week (and for me to give you credit for tweeting) you MUST put a special code (a Twitter hashtag) at the end of your tweet that is unique to that week.  A Twitter hashtag is comprised of a single word (or phrase) beginning with the pound symbol (#) and containing no spaces or punctuation.  Note:  on Twitter you can only follow usernames and you can only search for hashtags.

Anatomy of our class weekly Twitter Hashtag

During Week 1 everyone must tweet a short response to this question:

• What was your favorite subject in high school and what is your major?

Your tweet could look something like this:

Hi everyone!  I love math and my major is physics. #ASTF13W1

NOTE: This tweet is 60 characters long (so I could add 80 more characters if I wanted to say more.  Also, be sure you include the appropriate Twitter hashtag at the end, starting with the pound symbol.

Weeks 2 through 13, you will paired up with another student in the class and be responsible for searching Twitter with the weekly hashtag, summarizing all the tweets from the previous week, and then posting summary of the tweets to the class D2L Discussion Board no later than 8:00 AM on Wednesday.  Your summary must be in either pdf, Word, or PowerPoint format.  This will enable your classmates to use this as they prepare for the weekly quiz.  This should also be helpful when studying for the final exam.

Grading:  You will be graded on your Twitter participation.  You are allowed to miss three weekly tweets with no penalty.  You can earn a maximum of 50 points for the semester as follows:

Each weekly tweet (10 @ 3 points each) – 30 points

Weekly tweet summary (1 @ 20 points) – 20 points

Inspiration:  http://www.utdallas.edu/~mrankin/usweb/twitterconclusions.htm