Tag Archives: twitter

#MACUL13 Twitter Spam Whack-a-mole

5 Essential Safety Steps for Introducing Twitter to your Students

Twitter is a great way for students to learn the power of instant information sharing. Just subscribe to the Twitter feeds of any major news publication and the accounts of the journalists who contribute to them, and you’ll see up to the minute reports from varying perspectives. Encouraging your students to get involved in the Twitter community is a very exciting prospect, but also a very scary one.

Too many youth have been subjected to the harsh realities that once something is posted to the Internet, it is posted permanently. Teaching your students safe practices before they begin to use Twitter can prevent harmful repercussions down the road. Also, send out permissions slips detailing your safety steps to give parents peace of mind.

The following five safety steps are by no means a comprehensive list or Twitter security, but rather the five most essential steps you should go through with your students before they click their first “Tweet” button.

#1 – The Internet is a Public Domain

Just like Facebook, any content that is published to Twitter is available to be viewed by anyone who wishes to view it, unless you change your settings. Take a moment to educate your student by doing a quick Twitter search of any term (e.g.”phone,” or “screen name”). Show them the vast amount of results that are populated. Although you may not be following these users and they may not be following you, their Tweets are just a visible as if you were.

Encourage your students to restrict their tweets to interesting webpages, articles, music, current events, sports statistics, or other already public material. Discourage them from Tweeting about themselves, their personal experiences, or personal information until they become more familiar with the Twitter community or until they have enabled account privacy – under the settings tab, click the “protect my tweets” box to allow only those who your students approve to view their tweets.

#2 – Password Makes Perfect

Ever been phishing? I’m not talking about early morning’s on a lake with a bunch of worms. Phishing scams will hack into your accounts using your login credentials and send viruses or spam to your followers.

Teach your students to avoid phishing by choosing a secure password and changing that password at least once every two months. Secure passwords should contain a combination of letters and numbers and should never contain personal information – e.g. birthdates, addresses, names of family members, social security numbers. If your students happen to fall victim to phishing, have them change their password immediately.

#3 – Know Your Followers

Much like an email service, anyone can send you communications on Twitter by using your handle in a Tweet. If your students receive a tweet from someone they don’t know or who is not following them they should proceed with caution, especially if the Tweet contains a shortened link. When evaluating the validity of a questionable Tweet consider the following questions:

- Does the tweet contain little to no information about the link?
- Is the tweet asking me to join, approve, view, download, or retweet anything?
- Does the account who sent the tweet have zero followers? Are the following zero people?
- Does the account who sent the tweet lack a bio or avatar?

If the answers to one or more of the questions above is “yes,” chances are the tweet is either corrupt, spam, or frankly, just not worth risking your time. If it’s really that important, the person will contact you again.

#4 – Double Check, Triple Check your Tweets

Before sending a tweet, encourage your students to read and re-read their tweets before clicking the “tweet” button. Photos, links, and @ replies can easily be mistaken when in a rush. Taking a 10 second break to re-read each tweet your students send can save them from embarrassment and potential personal information leaks. Once they tweet something, encourage them to review the published tweet to determine if it should be deleted.

#5 – Don’t Over share. Just Don’t do it.

You’ve already told your students not to tweet about themselves, right? You followed step #1 and told them to keep their tweets about already public information, right? Well, just in case they fall victim to the allure of sharing quips about their daily life and what they had for breakfast, you can never overstress the importance of under sharing information about yourself. Your students should never share phone numbers, social media profile information (this includes instant messenger and Skype service handles), addresses, emails, etc. via tweet. If absolutely necessary encourage them to share this information through the direct message or DM feature offered by Twitter. It’s not fool proof, but much safer.

Social Learning Networks: Review

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It’s a simple thought – a mind that is self-directed and self-informed is only as powerful as itself, while a mind that has networked with one thousand others has the power of one thousand and one minds. Kevin Honeycutt implored our group to consider the real power of social networking and learning. He used to get teased when he would bring his laptop to board meetings. Now, he says he is a regular resource. Need an answer? Take it to Twitter for the power of the network.

It’s important to teach our youth and students about the power of social networking. ”We could all reinvent the wheel,” says Honeycutt; who, by the way, was wearing a very nice red bowling shirt. ”Or, we could ask someone else ‘what did you do?’” Kids are growing up with a social media mindset, so why not teach them how to empower their learning through the use of social media? It helps to broaden horizons and encourages collaboration while engaging them in a manner that makes complete sense to them.

Indeed, social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc., are highly useful tools, but they come with a price. ”When I was a kid it took a week to ruin my reputation,” he admits. Now it can happen the second you click “tweet.” Kids often don’t understand the permanence of the Internet. One foolish and impulsive post on Facebook could lead to serious trouble down the road. Everything is google-able.

One highly useful suggestion from Honeycutt: practice tweeting. He displayed an image of what seemed to be giant-sized twitter feeds running along the wall. Really, they were just laminated pieces of paper he cut out and arranged to mimic the platform’s trademark look. Having his students practice on wall-Twitter allows them to reflect on what they just wrote and offer feedback. Could this hurt someone? Could this hurt you? Not only does this encourage responsible use of technology and respect for others, but it helps students understand self-editing. Even if the writing is limited to one hundred and forty characters, the practice of self-editing is implanted. You can also help the youth closest to you by using Google Alerts to automatically search screen names and usernames. This way, anytime they post something using their Internet identity, you are made aware within the hour. You can monitor their activity and provide feedback conveniently without being a “Facebook Parent.”

Honeycutt left us with words that stuck with me: “If I like someone I’ll give them an answer out of my head. If I really like someone, I’ll give them an answer from [my social network].” There really is power in numbers.

You can see first hand how he uses social media in teachable situations at his free website artsnacks.org.

You can also join his growing network on Twitter by following: @kevinhoneycutt

Get the Word Out MACUL 2010 Conference Presenters!

Attending MACUL from Afar

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I was very disappointed when I learned earlier this week that I have pneumonia. I was bummed because I feel bad, but even more bummed because my physician told me I could not attend the MACUL Conference! I look forward to the conference every year. This year, I had more responsibilites than ever before… facilitating sessions, writing/posting to the MACUL blog, helping run the SIG-EE annual meeting, manning the MACUL booth, and supporting all the presenters from my district.

So I decided to do what I can virtually. I started with Twitter. The conference has Twitter buzzing for sure! I started following everyone who was following MACUL. People at the conference share tips, links, and ideas. As people share links, I tag them in my delicious account as macul09. If you would like to see all the links I tagged, you can see them here.

I attended Thursday’s Alan November keynote through the eyes of Ben Rimes and Kevin Clark as they used Cover it Live. It was almost as if I was there. When they wrote about students being creators of content, with Audacity being one of the tools mentioned, I shared some Audacity video tutorials. Shortly afterwords, I received a nice note by email from Kent Manning, a technology coordinator from Belleville, Ontatio, Canada. He also was not able to be at the conference and was “attending” the keynote virtually. We have similar jobs. He wondered if my tutorials were on iTunes (they weren’t) and told me an easy way to get them there. We are now Twitter friends and I’ve invited him to try out Plurk. Plurk is a Twitter-like network that allows more conversations. Try it out if you have not yet. Steve Dembo likes it; if Steve likes it, you probably will, too. Anyhow, this is an example of how a PLN can help you learn and grow professionally.

Later, a friend (Krista Hanna), saw that I was online and had Skype open. She called me and I was able to listen in on two of the sessions she attended. Awesome. Krista and I were to co-present this morning. Since Skype worked so well, we planned that if I was feeling up to it, that she would Skype me in for the presentation. I don’t look too great, so I did not turn on my webcam; I didn’t want to horrify the participants and have them run out of the room! However, I was able to pipe in with comments during the presentation. VERY COOL.

I’m also taking the opportunity to reflect on the conference, something that is difficult to do when you are rushing from place to place and networking with others. I have some ideas for the conference planners on ways to make MACUL 2010 even better!