Why Should I Tweet? Or Even Read What Others Tweet?

I am regularly asked why anyone would use Twitter. This is because I work mostly with people aged 40-80 who have not used technology much. I always try to respond with my own experience. Sometimes I have used it and sometimes I ignore it for months. I don't feel like I have to read what everyone I follow says. If I don't like what someone I follow writes about I can stop following them without any hurt feelings. I can choose to only follow people who write and share what I think are interesting things. Once a friend I knew shared about the Egyptian Spring AS IT HAPPENED! 

When I share it is because I have found an interesting resource. Or maybe I have had a universal and interesting experience. Maybe I retweet something I think is really important that someone else tweeted. Also, many teachers I know have found that it is a great way to connect to like-minded people across the globe and support one-another's teaching. It makes meeting at a conference somewhere really exciting. 

This morning though, I read a terrific article in the New York Times Week in Review Section about why Scott Simon of NPR tweeted his Mother's last hours. It was the best description of why someone tweets that I have come across. I cannot do it justice here, but here is a quote.

"Tweets are not compulsory reading. I did not pass on medical details, or rattle family skeletons. And I never suggested - my mother would have insisted on this - that her death was a tragedy. She lived a long, full, fascinating life, and died with her son by her side. I posted messages in which I admitted some of my anxieties and shared some of my mother's wit and spirit as we went though an intense experience that, one way or another we will all have."

If you want to know more read the article. "Tweeting Mom's Goodbye" New York Times Sunday March, 29, 2015.

Putting a Facebook or Twitter Icon on your Website

We have all seen the row of icons that lead to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Foursquare, etc... They are found on sites where the company or owner of the site has accounts with social media platforms and they want you to go to them.

If you have a website and communicate on social media you may want to add these icons to your site.

There are two types. One will lead you to the Facebook page of the company on the website and the other is a share button that takes you to your own Facebook profile and creates a link back to their site so that you can share it with your friends.

These buttons can be added manually to your site and then linked where you want them to go. There are lots of sites that have free graphics of the buttons where you can go and download the ones that you want to use.

http://www.iconarchive.com/category/social-network-icons.html

http://line25.com/articles/20-free-social-media-icon-sets-to-use-on-your-website



These are two examples, but there are many more. In most website programs the steps for adding linked graphics are similar.

1. You upload the image to the page and then insert it where you want it to appear.
2. The program allows you choose the size and location (Right, Left or centered) of the image.
3. When the icon is where you want it to be select it by clicking on it and look for the words add link or click on the picture of a chain at the top of the program. In a second tab on your browser open the website that you want to link and copy the URL. Go back to the tab where you are working on your web page and paste in the link. 

If you are using Blogger, Weebly, Wix, SquareSpace or one of many other websites where you can make your website the directions for doing this are part of the page. Here in Blogger it is one of the Widgets that I can add to the page. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see it. 

USING A PLUG IN

The other way to make it easy for someone to share your page is to use a widget or gadget that creates code which can be put into your site. One of these sites is http://www.addthis.com/

After you sign up on this website for free you are able to choose between various looks for your buttons. When you are done a code is created and you can paste that code into your webpage.

You can go to Google and search for 'plugin', 'social media', and the name of the software that you would like to put it into (wordpress, blogger, etc...) You will be given many choices and hopefully find one you like!

What is a Hashtag and Why do People use Them?

A hashtag is just a search term. Most people are familiar with using search terms in Google to find things that they are interested in. Hashtags are just search terms that people make up for certain situations. 




Here are some reasons that people use hashtags:

1. To find other people that have the same interests. You can go to Twitter or Facebook and type #yoga to find people who are interested in Yoga. In Facebook if I type yoga in the search terms it takes me directly to Yoga.com's Facebook page. If I type #yoga it takes me to a list of status posts of people who are talking about yoga. 

2. To keep up with what others are saying about a news story.  Type #Fergason or #Fergasonshooting to catch up with what is going on in St. Louis after the Mike Brown shooting. Stories like this often disappear from the news, but are not gone. Hashtags in Twitter are a way of keeping up after it has disappeared from the front page. Another interesting one is #ISIS



3. Keep up with a political campaign. I have not heard much about Wendy Davis lately (most likely I have not been reading the paper carefully enough) so I was interested to see what was going on right now. I typed in #WendyDavis and was taken to a page in Twitter that updated me on some things, but also pointed out articles in various sources that I might want to read.



4.  To connect with people and learn about a health condition that you are experiencing. Try typing in #multipleschlerosis into Twitter and Facebook to see what you get back. I think this may be a good way to find others who are experiencing what you are and also to access current information on the disease.

5. To follow along with a conference that you are unable to attend. Many people "tweet" as they listen to a conference presentation including pictures and links to what is happening. You can go to that # and participate in a small way without being there. Try #iste2014. Some of the posts lead to actual recordings of sessions so that you can listen to the whole thing. 





6. To do a group or family chat. If you have a group that is interested in talking together about the same thing, but are geographically separated you can send out information to everyone about a Twitter Chat.  You tell them what the hashtag will be and also what time you all plan to be online. This makes it more like a conversation than a list of people commenting on something. Also people who cannot be there at that time can go back and participate later. Try #4thChat which is a weekly chat for 4th Grade Teachers. People post in between chats, but you can see that many of the posts are clustered around one date. Look at August 4, 11, 18, and 25!

7. To amuse yourself. If you like cats you can try #cats, or maybe #jokes to see what you can find!  I tried #chocolate. You could lose a lot of time this way.





Hashtags can also be codes for something. Here are a few that are interesting.

#chirped = got caught
#420 = marijuana
#bullied
#livingdangerously = taking selfies while driving or some other unsafe behavior (actually pretty funny)
#selfie = taking a picture of self
#ootd = outfit of the day

I noticed that sometimes when I searched for something the first thing on the page did not fit in with my search. There are paid 'tweets' that go to the top of a search and so often when you go to a search you can skip the first few. They are marked as ads. Hashtags worked best on Twitter. They are used on Facebook, but not as often.

Snapchat and Instagram

The saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words. It must be true if you think about how popular pictures are on computers and mobile devices. Today I am going to talk about two apps for download to your iPhone, Android or Windows Phone. In some ways they compare to Twitter because in a very short time you can communicate to all of your followers. The main difference is that these apps both use pictures instead of text as their way of communication.





INSTAGRAM

Instagram has been around since 2010. In April of 2012 it was aquired by Facebook. Instagram is an instant photosharing app. When you open the app you can take pictures and instantly send them to one person OR to all of the people who follow you. You can set your profile to private so that only people you approve can follow you, or you can leave it open and anyone can follow you and see whatever photos you send out.

PROs

• You can send photos you take immediately out to a bunch of friends at one time. So it is an easy way of sharing with friends or family.
• A copy of each photo you have taken is kept in your profile, so you can go back and see what you took in the past.
• You can delete pictures that you took in the past. At the bottom of each picture there are three dots ... When you click them a menu opens up that gives you the choice to delete, share the photo, copy and share the URL, email the photo and tag people who are in it. Each photo that is uploaded is kept on the Instagram server and can be accessed that way.

CONs

• The photos you take and send are out of your control once someone else receives them. They have the ability of sharing it with someone else and even to put it onto their Facebook.
• These pictures are not easy to print or even to save to your computer.

Why would people want to use this?

Receiving photos exactly when people have taken them is exciting and makes you feel more a part of their life. Teenagers like to send funny photos to their friends to make them laugh. It is also possible to edit the photo and write captions on it before sending it. (the picture at the top was taken when I was looking at a webpage on what age people should stop driving. I typed the words across it!)

SNAPCHAT

The guys who created SNAPCHAT were feeling frustrated by the privacy issues with Facebook and Instagram. The problem of photos being resent to others and downloaded and saved could cause a person problems. Even if you delete your account you never know if someone downloaded and saved one of your pictures and it will show up when you least expect it. These Stanford students (age 22 and 24) created an app very similar to Instagram, except that the pictures are only available for 10 seconds when the person who received them opens them up. The picture then vanishes and is removed from the server.  It is possible, but difficult to copy a picture that shows up for just 10 seconds.

PROs

• A person can send a funny picture without worrying that it will be around forever. 

CONs

• People can use it to send inappropriate photos (nude, etc...) that will not get them in trouble.

Why would people want to use this?

Like Instagram it is possible to send things immediately to friends or family when something is happening. You can send funny pictures that make you laugh without worrying that they might show up later and not be so funny.  

Should I use 2 Step-Authentication?

WHAT IS 2 STEP AUTHENTICATION?

Authentication means making sure you are who you say that you are. Using a password is the main way that you are authenticated by most websites. But what if someone finds out your password. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter (and other large companies) have designed a way that you can have two layers of security for your accounts with them. First you have to put in your password. Second a random code is texted to your cell phone. When you get the message you type the code into the website and you are in. If someone has your password it is most likely that they do not have your cell phone also. 

NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS SHOULD YOU USE IT?

The more secure you want to be online the more important it is to use the two-factor authentication. You can set this so that it does not happen on your own computer, but only when you are using a public computer or one that belongs to someone else. 

In Facebook click on the gear in the top right to get the settings.  Then choose Security. Look down the list on the left until you see Log in Approvals. This is where you set up your phone to be an extra layer of security.

In Google after you log in find your picture, or the default picture in the top right corner. When you click on it a window will pull down and you should click on the word Privacy. This will open a webpage that will give you lots of information about how to be more secure. If you want to set up 2-step authentication slide down the page and click to "find out more about 2-step authentication. 

Follow similar steps to set this up in Yahoo, Twitter and other programs. The choice will be found in your settings under security or privacy. 

The more secure your computer is the more difficult it is for anyone, including you, to use it. I like the advice of Socrates "Know Thyself". How old are you?  How good is your memory? What do you use your computer for? How often do you use computers other than your own? Do you have a cell phone and do you use Text Messaging? 

For someone who uses a computer all of the time for business purposes or for regular banking it is a good idea to be as secure as possible even if it is frustrating sometimes. For someone who mostly plays solitaire and sometimes gets online to do email it may not be worth the effort. Then there are all of the many cases that fall inbetween. So, know yourself, is the best advice that I have. 

SOMETHING EXTRA

Since we are talking about security I thought I would also mention the Captcha Codes. Wikipedia says it stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. 

You often have to fill them out at the bottom of a form or application that you are submitting. They are getting more and more difficult to interpret. They were devised to make sure that it was a real person who is filling out the form. Today there are robot computers that can fill in forms and send notes, but they cannot read pictures of letters and numbers. 

If you cannot read the code on the page that you are on there is a speaker you can click on to hear the audio of the captcha. You can also press the circle arrows (or reload) to get a new code. There are several really tricky letters and numbers to read (L, l, I, and 1 for example), so never feel like you are stupid. You are SO much smarter than any computer.

What is a Hashtag and what do I do with it?

WHAT IS A HASHTAG?

I often hear or see something telling me to look for hashtag "#selected word" for something that is happening on TV or that I am reading about. Hashtag is a compound word with hash meaning the symbol # and tag meaning a descriptive word or created for one event or person. For example if you are interested in information on the president you can search for #obama in Twitter or other programs that use hashtags and a list of people who have put #obama in what they wrote will appear. This is a way that you can see what others are saying about something right now even if they are not on your "friend" list. 

Several sites are set up to use Hashtags for searches. Twitter and Facebook are the most common, but they can also be used in Linked In, Instagram, Google+ and other sites.

HASHTAGS IN TWITTER

Flooding in Colorado
This weekend there has been lots of news about flooding in Colorado. I thought I would see what I could find out from Twitter about the flood. I went to Twitter and typed in #floods and got a whole list of tweets about the flood. As I was looking at them 9 more appeared and the newest  one was from only 5 minutes ago. Hashtags on Twitter, Facebook and other sites give you a chance to see what people are saying about an event right when it is happening! People include videos, photos and links to articles on their tweets, so it gives you a chance to see what other people are saying about it as well as to see videos that are very current.

Obama's Speech
I missed Obama's speech on Syria, so I thought that I would look up the hashtag #obamaspeech #Syria and see what information I could find. I found that I could look at what was said by the top "tweeters" or by all (everyone) or by people I follow. At the far right side of each tweet there is a number which tells me how long ago this tweet was made. When new ones appear they come in minutes (5m, 1h or a date like 11 Sep).



Using Hashtags during an event

A new type of communication is happening through Twitter now when several people from different locations are all doing the same thing and tweeting what they think or what they are learning as they experience it. They often use a hashtag so that all of the tweets on that topic are searchable and it is possible to find the discussion later. At a conference for teachers who use technology people had the tag #iste13 and tweeted about what they were learning. You might want to try the hashtag #emmys next week when the Prime Time TV Emmy Awards are going on. Watch the Emmy Awards on TV and tweet your thoughts as it is happening or go to Twitter and search for the #emmys and see what others are saying!

HASHTAGS IN FACEBOOK
I thought I would try out the #floods hashtag on Facebook to see what I got. The comments it brought up were more personal and contained links to some helpful sites. I then took a look at my own Facebook to see if anyone used hashtags and did not find any. So, I went to one of my friends who I thought might use them and finally found one. It was #ilovenetflix. It took me to a few comments about Netflix, but not much of interest. My conclusion is that it is being used on Facebook, but not as much as on Twitter. 

HASHTAG TRENDING
Trending is a way of measuring what is popular at the moment. If you look at the first page on Twitter there is a column on the left that says "trending" and lists hashtags. This is the list of the things that most people are tweeting about using hashtags. The hashtags.org website is a good way to go and learn more about this.
http://www.hashtags.org/
The definition that they give for hashtags:

 "The primary purpose of a hashtag is to bring conversations on the same topic into a single thread to make it convenient for information consumers to view and compare ideas."

Do you Tweet? Some ideas on Twitter

Twitter is everywhere. 

Recently....

• when I watch TV, especially the news shows, I am being invited to follow someone. 
• I can follow my favorite grocery store or clothing store. 
• When the bomb first went off in Boston a person who was there first thought of checking Twitter to see what happened. When there was nothing yet he sent out a tweet to his followers.

Twitter is a way to send a short message to a group of people who follow you. It is great for stores because they can send out one short message to let all of their loyal customers know something like what will be on sale soon. It is a way to connect to other people who are interested in the same things that you are.

TIP #1 After you sign up the next thing to do is to find some people to follow. You can follow regular people who are also using Twitter, movie stars, newspapers and shows, and stores. There is a Search window at the top right side of the page. Type the name of the person, or organization that you want to follow in the search window. If they are on Twitter the program will find them and you can click on the  Follow button.

TIP #2 Often when you choose to follow someone they follow you back, but not always. President Obama has a Twitter account and you might want to follow it to see what he is up to.  Here is what his page says about who follows him and who he follows. You can actually click to see who these people are.

TIP #3 It is easy to stop following (unfollow) someone. There is no notification when you stop following someone, so you can be sure that no feelings are hurt. To stop following someone you just open the list of who you are following and click on the word Following next to their name. When you roll over the button it turns red and says "unfollow" and then if you click they stay on your list, but the button next to them says Follow. You can click it again to begin following them.

TIP #4 If you want to look at everything that one person has said on Twitter just search for them by typing their name in the search window. It will take you to their profile and then you will see ONLY what they have posted.  Try it out with my Twitter. My twitter name is @jfriesen. If you do this search you will find a note especially for Blog readers. Also if you see @jfriesen (or another name) on a tweet it means that the tweet was written especially for that person.

TIP #5 Hash tags # are used to create one word that everyone can agree upon so that when you search for that word you get all of the tweets about that topic. For example, yesterday was Earth Day, so there was a #earthday hash tag. If you search for that it will bring up all of the posts from everyone, not only your followers that have the #earthday in them. 

TIP #6 RT means Retweet. If you read something you really think is important on Twitter you may want to retweet it. That will send it out to all of your Twitter followers.  Retweeting helps get important news out.

TIP #7 DM means that you want to send the message directly to one person rather than to your whole list of followers.

This symbol indicates that you can follow this person or place. They want you to keep track of them and keep in touch with what they are doing.

There are lots of programs that allow you to see Twitter in different ways. It is worth looking at them to see if you like how any of them work. These are programs that download to your computer and connect with your Twitter feed so that it shows up in columns or in other ways that may make it easier to read or follow. There are many others than those listed below.

Tweetdeck

Twitterific

HootSuite

A STORY

When I was writing this I wanted to check on what was "trending" on Twitter. Trending is a measure of what is getting the most attention. Someone had hacked the Associated Presses Twitter and sent out a note that the White House had been Bombed and that President Obama was injured. It was not true, but it was retweeted quickly by many people so much that the stock market dropped. A few seconds later the Associated Press sent out a note about it being untrue and the market went back up. Look at this interesting graph!

The ease of using and following Twitter on a Smart Phone has made it very popular. With just a glance I can check to see if I have any new "tweets" and keep up to date on the people I am following. The other reason that Twitter has become so popular is that it is instant. At SXSW in Austin where it was first used people were using it to communicate to their followers where the cool things were and where to meet. You could easily tweet "Come to Antones to see Willy Nelson!  He just walked in!". Pretty cool. It is good for conferences where there are lots of people and places to be and you want to keep in communication in a quick way. 

Ten Tech Skills That Everyone Should Have: Part One

This post is based on a blog that I read online a while ago. I thought it had some helpful tips, so I have edited it and added a bit of my own stuff. It was written by someone who was thinking about what students need to learn about using technology in school. We are all long passed school, so I wonder how many of these skills you feel comfortable with? Here is the URL of the post it is based on:

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.fr/2012/01/10-tech-skills-every-student-should.html

Do you know how to do an

effective Internet search?

Common Craft videos are a great, simple and fun way to learn things about technology. This one is about searching. It does have some extra words on it to protect people from downloading and using it because they make their money from people who subscribe to use the videos.

Common Craft Video on Web Search Strategies

Do you know how to create, edit, and save

documents, spreadsheets and presentations?

These are common uses for computers. Almost everyone knows how to create, edit and modify documents. There are many people who are unsure of themselves when it comes to spreadsheets or presentations. Most people use Microsoft Office to create documents, spreadsheets or presentations. 

There are other low cost and even free options now. Open Office is a free product that is very much like MS Office. You can download it for free and try it out. When you save your document you have to tell it that you want it to be a .doc so that anyone can open it. Otherwise it is automatically an Open Office document and can only be opened with that program. When I downloaded the newest operating system to my Mac none of my Intel programs would work. MS Office was one of the casualties. I have downloaded and used Open Office and it takes the place of word just fine. I have not tried it for presentations.

Another possibility is Google Drive. It used to be called Google Docs and was upgraded to Google Drive. The difference is that you can download a program to your computer so that you can access your Docs even when you are offline. A future post will have more about Google Drive. It has a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation software and some other things. All of your documents are automatically saved and you can even share them with other people and work on the same document collaboratively.

Open Office

Google Drive

Do you know how to get help when you need it?

Recently I have learned that you can find answers to almost everything by just going to Google and typing in what you want to know.  I am soon going to do a post on maintaining your computer and so just to be sure that I don't miss anything important I am going to go to Google and type "computer maintenance". In the first page of links I will probably find links to some very helpful pages. The main problem with this approach can be that you do not understand what they are trying to tell you. If that is an issue here are some links to other sites that may be helpful.

This site is a lot of fun. It is posted as a letter to your parents where you send them videos about things that they may need to learn. You fill in all of the blanks and then press the PREVIEW button at the bottom and it takes you to where you can watch the video. This is a great way to learn and there are lots of choices of videos.

TechSupport help

Can you type?

For the longest time I have been told that "soon people will not need to type because they can just talk to their computers." This has been possible for a long time and maybe sometime we will get used to doing it. Until then it really makes a difference in how fast you can get something done if you can type. Here are a few free programs you may want to try:

Kiran's Typing Tutor

Learn to Type Free

Key Blaze Typing Tutor Software

Typing Tutor - This one has games

If you want to pay for a great program my favorite is Mavis Beacon. There are many others. Just do a Google Search!

Mavis Beacon

Do you know how to use Social Media

(Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc...)?

There is so much to learn in this area. It is like an explosion. The Internet used to be static, meaning that it basically stayed the same. You could not change anything on the Internet. Now everything has changed. You have the power to add, comment, post, and change many parts of the Internet. The most popular is Facebook. Many people have gone to using it as their main way of communicating with other people. There are also many more. I am adding links to many of them. It is not the purpose of this post to explain how to use them all. If you would like me to write specifically about one of them or a part of one of them (more than I have in other posts) please let me know.

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

YouTube

Flickr

Picasa

I have run out of time for this posting, so I will have to do the second five in the next post. Let me know what you think I may have missed and what you want to learn about!