Friday 21 December 2012

An alternative way to make use of your tweets



I am a bit dull on Twitter. I tend to use it for signposting articles and other things of interest relating to Higher Education. Sometimes its a video, maybe a webtool, but mostly its articles I read in the UK press.  Earlier this year Sandra Sinfield, a wonderful old-school academic from London Metropolitan University, noticed a theme running through my tweets that she thought would make a good presentation.

She asked me to make a Prezi and feeling inspired, and having first been given a basic PowerPoint to act as an outline, I created the above prezitation.  It was one of the first I had made so it would benefit from me redoing it, now that I know more about picture quality and creating a zoom that does not make students feel sick. But what it does show is how we can use our tweets to make something creative.  

For those interested in my method, it was a bit laborious (I can understand why people prefer Storify). 

1. Sandra supplied an outline
2. I took screenshots of the pages I had posted on twitter
3. I edited the shots using Paint.net
4. I embellished and added extra material that i thought would be suitable e.g. Youtube videos
5. For tweets without links I looked for suitable images that went with the text
6. I would make lots of tea and complain a lot.

The resulting Prezi was used in lectures with trainee teachers.

So the question is, how do you use your tweets?

4 comments:

  1. Tweets: I had a never used my twitter account which I didn't understand, so left it alone. Then we opened a restaurant for 2 weeks and had to think of an instant promotion, so we used twitter, linked to a tumblr site with menus, linked to our website. Tweeted tempting food pics and messages several times a day in the lead up to the opening, followers began to gather, and the restaurant was full every day with people who had a shared interest and understood exactly what we were on about. We called it Feast for a Fortnight!

    I learned from that, that a purpose was helpful. I haven't had a purpose since, but now with EDCMOOC, I dug out the password, and found a new purpose: communicating with our group (and beyond) and learning more about the online teaching/learning world from people who are as keen as me, and probably know a lot more. The links have given me a lot to think about. They are current, and I feel much of it has brought me up to speed pretty quickly with current thinking and practices in online learning and MOOCS.

    I think you can throw things out in the twittersphere. My little boy and I adopted a tiger through WWF yessterday, so I tweeted about it and got a reply and quite a few retweets, when I really only had my daughter in mind when I tweeted it. So maybe someone else will adopt one too.

    My thoughts on twitter for what it's worth, I'm sure there are a lot more uses. I've read plenty about its use in HE.

    This article seems to think it is for an intellectual hit! http://bit.ly/Ucb62h

    Have fun with your blog! Angela

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  2. Wow, that was long, sorry. This little comment box is deceptive!

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  3. Angela, thanks for sharing. It looks like you could teach me a thing or two about Twitter for marketing, and tumblr which I have never used.

    You are right about needing motivation, I am the same. That is when I get my best ideas and do my best work.

    I must admit I am now intrigued about the food you cook and your restaurant. In fact, I am getting hungry just thinking about it :)

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  4. This is a really good presentation - thanks very much :)

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