How teachers can use twitter to find resources

Twitter is an excellent app for teachers to communicate about topics of interest and find relevant resources. 

It has a great search feature built into it, but if you use it en the same manner as Google you might be a little disappointed.  Today we are going to look at using Twitters search and advanced search function, and also workout the world of Hash tagging.

I am going to use twitter from the browser for this example but all the rules still apply for mobile devices too.

Twitter's search bar is located on the top left of your screen

Twitter's search bar is located on the top left of your screen

When using search in twitter it views the phrase Lesson Plans as two individual words.  You might still find what you are after, but if you use quotation marks around your search phrase such as "Lesson Plans" Twitter will search for that exact phrase.

When your results are returned you will see the following screen and we can then refine a little further. by refining the highlighted section.  You can also save this search by clicking the cog on the top right.

twtiiter search 3.JPG

Advanced search is one of Twitter's more useful tools and can also be found under the cog.

Advanced Search offers lot's of choices to refine your findings

Advanced Search offers lot's of choices to refine your findings

There are a number of fields within advanced search that will allow you refine exactly what it is you are after and filter out the noise.

As you can see my maths lesson plan seach is really what I am after.

As you can see my maths lesson plan seach is really what I am after.

So what is this Hashtag thing?

Hash tags are reference points that people put at the end of their tweets to link them to a common discussion.  For instance if you search the hash tag #teaching these are tweets that people want connected to discussions about teaching.  So people like yourself can continue the discussion and discover them at a later date.

Most Popular Educational Hash Tags

Have a go at searching through some of these more popular educational hash tags to find discussions relevant to your needs.

  • #EdTech
  • #Education
  • #Classroom
  • #STEM
  • #ContemporaryLearning
  • #BlendedLearning
  • #EdApp
  • #EngChat
  • #MathChat
  • #HistoryTeacher

I hope this helps and happy searching

A few updates to Edgalaxy

With the kids returning to school this week Edgalaxy is now rolling out content on a daily basis again and we have made some changes to the site that all visitors should be aware of. 

  • We have added a stack of lessons and new teaching ideas in the menu bar over the weekend that are worth taking a look at for inspiration.
  • We have opened an Edgalaxy Store for teachers to buy some really worthwhile ebooks and digital resources to download and use in the classroom.  Can I just say this is paid content and the ONLY section of the site we will try to sell material to our visitors.  Everything else as always is free.
  • If you haven't got our free ebook for nerdy teachers grab it now.
  • Everyday we will be adding new content and the best way to keep  up with what is happening in the world of tech tools and toys for nerdy teachers is to subscribe to our RSS Feed and Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Look forward to working with you in 2011

 

Kev