Twitter Tips for EFL teachers

Here’s a quick list of tips for those EFL teachers who don’t really get the whole Twitter thing.

• Relax. Nobody gets Twitter.
• Don’t relax too much. Try it for yourself. You’ll never get it if you don’t. It doesn’t cost anything. Sign up at Twitter.com.
• Get informed. Watching the video “Twitter in Plain English” is a good starting point.

• Start following. Begin with a few of the names in the Twittering TEFLsphere, such as @lclandfield, @dudeneyge, @cheimi10, @NikPeachey, @Harmerj, and @thornburyscott. Oh, and @markcbain looks interesting…
• Build your network. Follow the people the people you are following are following. Yes, I’m sure I could have phrased that better.
• Get a client. If you are still going to the webpage to look at your tweets, you’re not getting the best user experience. Try a Twitter “client”, such as Tweetdeck. Get to know what it can do. Set up your groups and lists into columns.
• Follow an event in real time. For me, Twitter came into its own during the Xmas 2009 UK Snowpocalypse. I spent several anxious hours watching what was going on with flights from BCN to the UK. For others, it might have been the launch of the iPad. I imagine there will be tweets coming out of the sessions at IATEFL’s conference in Harrogate. Try following a talk by Twitter. It’s not quite the same as being there, but maybe it’s a close second.
• Retweet. It’s how you build a network. So when you see something you like, retweet it. You’ll earn brownie points from the orignal tweeter, and perhaps another follower – after all, you share the same interests. But more importantly, you’re contributing to the functionality of the network. Interesting tweets will be retweeted more, and so more people will see them, retweet them and help them be seen by more people. So you don’t need to read everything to keep up to date with the important issues or cool links. You’ll see them appear more than once.
• Tweets are not blog posts. Get rid of the idea that you need to read them all! As mentioned above, the retweet effect will make the best stuff more visible; the dross will sink to the bottom. Just browse them from time to time.

Hopefully, these tips will get you up and using Twitter. Maybe you’ll still be scratching your head, but at least you’ll have something to add to the conversation!