1. Visit www.twitter.com and create a free account. Check out the video below which guides you through the sign up process. If you already have a personal Twitter account, you may want to set up a professional account in addition. On mobile devices, you can easily switch between accounts when tweeting.

Username tip: Twitter automatically generates a username (aka twitter handle) for you. You can change it to something else, or leave it as is. You are not locked into this username, but can change it later, if you like.

Twitter will prompt you to follow people. (You can always unfollow them later if their tweets don't interest you.)

Recommendations of people to follow:

@edutopia

@gradhacker

@gcouros

@SirKenRobinson

@TheJLV

@coolcatteacher

@feedtheteacher

@DanBrownTeacher

@tomwhitby

@jordosh

@mraspinall

@OISENews

2. Please add your twitter handle to the google spreadsheet called Twitter Challenge. This way we will know who is participating in the challenge, and we can follow each other.

In the search bar, type in any subject area to find more people of interest, and follow them. For example, a search for Math will show results of people who tweet about math. Try other subjects that are relevant to you.

• Follow 5 new people.
  
• Favourite some of their tweets.
  

Introduce yourself in your first tweet.

Ideas: Let people know where and what you teach, or who you'd like to connect with. Finish your first tweet with a hashtag. See the picture below for an example.

Engage in the basics of Twitter:

1. Reply to a tweet from someone you follow.

2. Retweet (RT) a tweet that is worthy of sending out to your followers.

3. Favourite three tweets you like.

Notes:

• When talking about people or organizations with Twitter accounts, use @
  

Examples: @JimHewitt5 @OISENews

• When tagging a tweet so it can be grouped together with other tweets for search and chat purposes, use #
  

Examples: #ctl7016 #edchat

Download a twitter app to your phone or tablet. Below are three examples of Twitter Apps available on both iPhone/iPad and Android devices.

• Post your first mobile tweet that includes a photo.

Visit the Twitter Challenge page. This page contains the twitter handles of all the people who have participated in this challenge. Use this information to follow anyone on the list you might recognize, or everyone if you like.

Find an article on a website or a blog post you are interested in and tweet a link to the article. Most articles and posts will have a sharing toolbar like the one below. Just click on the blue bird, or the word 'Tweet'.

Look through this list of educational Twitter Chats, and find one that seems interesting to you. Note the time it takes place, and put it in your calendar. Send out a tweet announcing you plan to attend the next meeting of that Twitter Chat. Don't forget to attend and participate in the chat.

Post a thought-provoking statement or question on Twitter, and invite your followers to respond and answer.

If you’re taking part in a popular chat, you will find it far easier to follow if you use a different twitter client than twitter.com.

Check out www.twitterfall.com or www.hootsuite.com, www.tweetdeck.com, or the Google Chrome Twitter extension.

It’s a matter of personal preference so you might like to try a couple of different options until you find the one that works best for you. Test one of these platforms out before your first Twitter Chat, to become familiar with it.

It might take a while to get your twitter feed working well for you. You may follow and unfollow people until you get a nice mix of content appearing in your feed that you really value. If you would like to round out your twitter feed by following some fascinating tweeters without a specific educational focus, check out the following:

@omgthatspunny

@HistoryInPics

@stats_canada (satire)

@preschoolgems

You might want to follow your local news feed, or any number of UofT tweeters.

Congratulations! You are now at day 14 of the challenge. This is really just the beginning of your learning journey that can happen on Twitter.

The 14-Day Twitter Challenge is designed to assist people with the initial stages of discovery on Twitter. Continue beyond the 14-day stage and reap the rewards for years to come. Check out 100 Ways to Use Twitter in Education.