Watch the video ‘Using Twitter Effectively in Education’ (Teaching and Learning in Southern Australia, 2013), with Alec Couros, a professor at the University of Regina.

Couros is a leading thinker around digital skills for educators, and the development of PLNs. He explains his thinking about Twitter in the video, and why you might want to ‘follow’ particular educators or monitor specific hashtags.

An alternative to Twitter is the open source equivalent, Mastodon. You can read a short article here about some of the benefits of Mastodon.

If you do not have a Twitter or Mastodon account, we encourage you to sign up for one, and to spend some time exploring and experimenting. If you are not sure who you should follow as a user, ask your colleagues for suggestions. Here are some other suggestions to get started.

• Mention #extendnz in a post commenting on one thing you’ve learned with regard to using Twitter or Mastodon effectively in education
• Search for other users who’ve mentioned #extendnz, and consider adding them to your network
• Add a course code (e.g. #nzext102) to your post, so that peers in the same course can find you
• Tag @ontarioextend, the team whose work we’re building on!
• Consider following ASCILITE (the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education), “a professional association of 600 members engaged in the application of technology to enhance teaching & learning in higher education”. You might also like to subscribe (and/or contribute!) to their TELall blog

As evidence of completion, please add a link or a copy of your response to your Extend NZ blog or portfolio.