The Twitter Life

Explorations of a Reluctant Twitter Newbie

I am not at all afraid to admit that Twitter is one of the social media platforms I have actively avoided in the last few years. While people around me spoke of the latest people they were following on Twitter, my general response was "meh." In 2013 I created my first Twitter account after joining Teach for America.

A quick Twitter search of "TFA RGV" quickly brought up the Twitter account for my TFA corps. I'm fairly positive I followed this account back in the day. For the life of me, no matter how hard I try, I can not remember my original Twitter username. Perhaps I should just blame this on getting older.

Since I did have an account in 2013, perhaps it's inappropriate to consider myself a Twitter newbie. Even in the scant amount of time since I last used the platform, the functionality seems to have greatly increased.

One of my favorite new tools to use with Twitter is Hootsuite. With Hootsuite I can control not just one Twitter account, but several. This could be really useful if I want to send out the same message to several different accounts. You'll see my Twitter handle on the image above as @TechieAlly.

From the image above, you can see that Hootsuite can connect Twitter with Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, Instagram, and Youtube.

I think in a classroom context, I would be most intrigued to connect Twitter with a classroom Instagram, Youtube, or Facebook page. Since so many students have access to cell phones these days, it could provide a quick way to get a message out. Additionally, we can use these connections to keep parents informed about what is going on in the classroom. I also explored the Tweet Deck platform this week.

One area of concern in anything to do with social media is student privacy. I don't believe that a teacher should use a personal account to interact with students online.

One Twitter project that I would love to implement is a novel or character study. When reading a class novel, I would have each of the students choose a character to portray from the novel. Then they would have to create Twitter personas to interact with each other. I got this idea from the web series "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" which aired on Youtube and Twitter.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a modern take on the classic story of Pride and Prejudice. The show aired on Youtube as a web series. While the show was airing, each of the characters had Twitter accounts. In between episodes, the characters would tweet to each other. Even after the show finished airing, the creators of the show would still have the characters tweet every so often. This is without a doubt, my favorite use of Twitter in the past!

Now in 2017, most of the time when I hear people talking about Twitter, they are talking about what the President has posted, who dissed who, who can't spell, etc. As teachers I think we have to use our Twittering to set an example for our students. Twitter can be a lot of fun, but it can't also be a source of bullying for students.

Personally, I don't see Twitter being used in class at my current school, because it is blocked. It would be interesting to use it as an outside of class activity, but though most students have cell phones, not everyone has access to a smart phone or the internet outside of school. I like the idea of back channeling, but I think I would find this distracting in a classroom. I'd love to participate in a professional development session.

My Tweets for the Week

After signing up for Twitter, HootSuite was my first stop!

Next I went to check out TweetDeck. I thought it had an easy interface.

I decided to try adding a link. This link goes to the Padagogy Wheel, a tool for evaluating apps.

A fellow classmate recommended that I check out the chat capabilities on TweetDeck. I completely forgot that I'd already checked out the program when I sent this tweet!

Learning how to retweet another classmates image.

I'm planning to evaluate a website called Storybird for next week's technology evaluation project.

At this point I finally realized I'd already looked at TweetDeck! ^^

Attempting to reply to a classmate's post about another resource for the class.

The deepest thought in life...is there still time for donuts?

A reply to our instructor regarding an article linked.

Overall, I had fun exploring Twitter this week. Will I manage to use it longer than I did last time? I guess that is to be determined! I'm hoping to find some interesting organizations to follow online that will help me both personally and professionally.

Right now many of the apps on my phone allow duel sharing with Twitter. Since these are my personal accounts, I've decided to create yet another Twitter account to test out the interconnectivity of these apps in the future! I'm most curious about the possibilities of connecting Twitter with Instagram.

Digital Footprint Exploration

Conducting a Vanity Search 

Have you ever heard the phrase the internet lasts forever? In our classrooms, we always tell our students to be careful about what they post online. As teachers, we also need to be aware of how we are perceived based on the digital footprints we leave behind.  One way to gauge the impact of your digital footprint is by conducting a vanity search. I decided to first conduct a test search using a generic name and then search for my own name.

Demo Search

To conduct a vanity search, simply enter your name in quotes in your favorite search browser and see what appears. So for example, if my name was Jane Smith, I would type "Jane Smith" into the search box. If your name is a common name, then you may have to weed through several thousand results or add additional filters like location in order to narrow your results. I did a quick search for Jane Smith using Google and I found almost 500,000 results. 

By adding an additional search parameter, I was able to narrow the results to just over 100,000. 

Types of Results

Within the results of my demo search, I found links to several social media pages including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Linked In and a plethora of photos and videos that go along with these sites. There were also links to educational history and news stories. By far, the vast majority of the results were for personally identifiable information and vital statistics. 

My Personal Vanity Search

I do have a fairly unique name, so I was not expecting to get anywhere near the amount of results as some people may discover. I've also been careful to use truncated versions of my name on the majority of my social media networks as well as using strict privacy settings in an effort to reduce my digital footprint. 

The Results

I was not surprised to discover that there were relatively few results for my name.  I had 225 hits under all results, 11 under images, and zero under both news and videos. In the images section, none of the images that appeared were actually pictures of me.

I also did a search for my two nicknames and I found even fewer results. The majority of the results that came from searching my nicknames were personally identifiable information lookup sites. 

From an outsider's point of view, it would appear that I don't use social media. Aside from the websites I utilize for class activities, I have a very minimal digital presence. Although I do have personal accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., they do not appear in a search since I have been very careful about privacy settings and the usage of my full name. From performing a search of my name, you'll discover that I am a teacher who uses technology in the classroom. You'll find that I was an honors student who helped lead student activities. Perhaps the most disturbing is the large number of results with lists of my family members, our ages, and locations. Finally, you will discover that I've started designing fabric as a hobby. A further breakdown of the images and page results is below: 

Images

• 1 Photo: Prezi Screenshot circa 2013
• 2 Photos: There were two photos of my childhood friend that were posted on a Go Fund Me for her funeral expenses last August. 
• 1 Photo: Tech Conference Logo 
• 3 Photos: Completely Unrelated
• 4 Photos: Four of the images were pictures of fellow staff members and students at my school from the previous school year.  At the time, I was assisting with updating our school website.  

Webpages

Pages Related to Work

• 3 Results: Teacher Rating--No ratings had been submitted.
• 17+ Result: Tech Conference Participants
• 1 Result: Work Website

Pages Related to Accounts Created for Class Demonstrations, Interactions, or Practice

• 7+ Results: Prezi
• 1 Result: Classroom Quizlet Page
• 1 Result: Teacher Edmodo Page--A picture of my cat appears as my profile picture.
• 3 Results: A PowToon I created and posted on Youtube in 2014. I was surprised to discovered someone had added it to their playlist of teaching videos.

Personal

• 1 Result: My friend's Go Fund Me page.
• 8+ Results: Personally Identifiable Information and Vital Statistics

College

• 2 Results: A story in the local newspaper from 2009 relating to the student newspaper I helped found. 
• 1 Result: A .pdf of the concert program from the Scandinavian choir tour I participated in at the end of 2002. Within the .pdf there is a picture of the choir, but we are not identified in order within in the picture. Although my picture appears, those who do not know me would not know that this is my picture. My name also appears within the program.  This program was uploaded to the website of my former choir director. I peeked around the site a bit more and I did find video recordings of three performances from early 2003. Although I am in these videos, none of the choral members are identified within them.
• 2 Results: A .pdf of an issue of the school newspaper.
• 1 Result: College Merit Pages 2011

eCommerce

• 18+ Results: Links to my eCommerce page on the SpoonFlower fabric design marketplace.

Completely Unrelated

• 41+ Results: Related to a person in Canada.

I believe conducting a vanity search would be a good exercise for students. It can show them how far their reach is online. It can also show them how privacy settings can go a long way toward keeping their content safe online. I have tons of pictures online, but with privacy settings they don't pop up everywhere.