Twitter

Twitter is a micro blogging service which allows members to send messages to each other (tweets) of 140 characters or less. It is an excellent way to link up and create a community of EL educators. TAs could use Twitter to:
 * Advertise events/conferences etc
 * Send links and articles to members and non-members
 * Discuss important matters related to language education
 * Find out what other TAs are doing and link up with them

** Video Tutorials **
media type="custom" key="7037955"
 * How to get started on Twitter All you need to know if you are a new twitter user - this video tutoriar includes all the steps, from setting up your account, to customising the design of your twitter home page with images - this is important so you can upload the logo of your TA and a background which may include your logo, or even photographs from a recent event. (tutorial by Paul Trotter)
 * How Tweetdeck works Twitter can be used directly from your browser, or you can also use another application, such as Tweetdeck. This tutorial by Pail Trotter explains how to use it. Tweetdeck is recommended because it makes retweeting and updating much faster and convenient than working from your browser.

Useful articles and blog posts

 * A Twitteraholic'’s Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter A very useful overview of Twitter for educators by Sue Waters. the help and supprt person behind Edublogs The post includes some information about using hashtags and tweeting during conferences and events.

TAs and Lists of Educators to follow
We recommend that you start by ‘following’ these TAs (this is the twitter term for seeing other tweeters’ news feeds and sharing their links)
 * @tesol
 * @iatefl
 * @iateflonline
 * @ETA-NSW
 * @braztesol
 * @TESOLFrance
 * @GlobalTESOL
 * @avealmec
 * @aprir
 * @acpi_cba
 * @apiba
 * @BraztesolRN
 * @aplitins
 * @VenTESOL
 * @tesolchile
 * @TesolArabia
 * @tesolgreece
 * @ohiotesol
 * @GlobalTESOL
 * @bcteal
 * @ITBE

Twitter takes time to build up and needs patience and investment at the start. It can seem confusing to begin with, but we firmly believe it is worth being patient as it is an amazing resource that reaches thousands of people.Teachers' Associations with Twitter Accounts you could follow.

** Lists of TEFL educators **
By now there are several listing applications on the web, such as Listorious and could follow to increase your presence and potential membership.

Here are two or three lists which I found there related to Teaching English as a Foreign Language
 * []
 * []
 * []
 * []

Using Twitter during Conferences & Events - Backchanneling
Twitter is also a great way for its users who are attending a conference to 'tweet' points a speaker has made through what is called a 'backchannel" and in this way, connect those who were **not able** to attend. Many twitter users engage in such conversations daily through the use of hashtags,e.g. for IATEFL Harrogate, the hashtag was #iatefl - look at some tweets posted during the conference. So if you put the hashtag in special search box you could see what everyone was saying about the event! // This is a sample of tweets sent during the IATEFL Conference at Harrogate //

You can follow Twitter in your browser or you can download an application such as Tweetdeck or similar free application which allows you to follow much more than just one account. You can download this for Windows, Mac, iPad and iPhone.

It's a great application which you can use to connect other social media such as Facebook updates, LinkedIn and more. Watch this short video

media type="youtube" key="o8KOgkmGwaA?fs=1" height="340" width="560"

Hashtags #
The hashtag symbol (#) on twitter makes it easy to search and follow a particular conversation in which all the participants are using it. The twitter conversations in the image above, during the IATEFL Conference at Harrogate in 2010, made use of the hashtag #iatefl, so anyone who wanted to follow this particular stream of tweets just put this hashtag in their search box and save it as well as used it for anything they wanted to say to others following it.

You can create a hashtag for a particular event or for your association in order to communicate news to your members. E.g. during the recent SLanguages 2010 Conference in Second Life, everyone following the conference tweeted adding #slang10 at the end of their tweets, so it was possible to follow every comment by saving this search and following that particular stream.

Here is a quick screenchast which shows you how to follow a hashtag on twitter and on Tweetdeck