This post is designed to support educators get the most out of a twitter based learning network, with the minimal amount of effort.

1. Go to a page on the twitter website of someone you already follow. If you are new to twitter, you could start with @tombarrett @timrylands @dawnhallybone @dajbelshaw or even me! @primarypete_. On their page click ‘listed’. View a list made from educators on twitter and click it. When you find a list you want to follow click ‘follow this list’.
2. Install an application that allows you to easily access Twitter lists. I currently use Tweetdeck. View the bottom of this post for more on how to use Tweetdeck. Click the ‘+’ icon at top and add a column. Click groups/lists and add the list you followed in step 1. (The newly followed list may take a few minutes to show up).
3. You are now following any updates from anyone in the list. Strategy A: Over a week (as different people tend to tweet at different times) follow anyone in the list that interests you or will add to your professional development. (Advantage: more manageable amount of users to follow when viewing ‘all followers’. Disadvantage: potentially smaller network of support). Strategy B: Blanket follow everyone then after a week unfollow anyone that you find is not adding to your professional development. (Advantage: potentially larger network of support. Disadvantage: less manageable when viewing ‘all followers’).
4. Create your own list of users that contribute heavily to your own professional development (I have an ‘a’ and ‘b’ list both with 40 or so in). My preference is to keep these lists private (the default setting).
5. Read your own list/s most frequently. Occasionally check all your followers and the lists you follow. This allows your professional development ‘net’ to be thrown wider and wider rather than stay ‘cliquey’. Over time you may want to stop following the original lists you followed, depending on what works for you.

Why not just use Tweetdeck groups to access my professional network? Using the list system, you have a system that can be accessed on the twitter website, an application such as Tweetdeck or a mobile phone such as Tweetie2 (I’m hoping a forthcoming Tweetdeck IPhone update will include lists in the same way they do in the desktop version).

Why do I need to bother creating my own lists? Without creating your own lists, following the above method very quickly gives you access to a wide professional development network. However, if you follow others and then create a personal list it gives you a method of making the information more personal and manageable.

Why use Tweetdeck? The short answer, once you are up and running with it…speed! The longer (and slightly more techie) answer below:

1. If you have the same people in more than 1 list you follow, or in your personally created list and ‘all followers’, by clicking the ‘eye icon’ to mark your personal list as read and then clicking the ’scissors icon’ in ‘all followers’ you can remove just the tweets you have already looked at, saving you time.
2. When searching large lists or ‘all followers’ you can click the ‘cloud icon’ and skip to information mentioned most frequently. Useful if you want a very quick look.
3. When searching large lists or ‘all followers’ you can click the ‘filter icon’ and type in ‘http’ or ‘?’ to just view weblinks or questions people are asking. I use this method a lot when I want a quick look at large amounts of tweets.
4. You can choose when you want to be notified of updates by clicking the ’spanner icon’ you access settings. My notification settings are below: