What makes a geek? Well, according to IMS contributor Rachel Jones, a geek is “passionate, knowledgeable, wanting to convey that to the children in our classrooms. A liking for sci-fi optional.” Here, we take that enthusiasm and look at 30 superb tweeters who either identify as “geeky” or meet this loose, celebratory criteria. Senses of humour and bon mots abound.  Note: This list was assembled by Innovate My School and external recommendations. It is by no means a ‘best-of’, and is in no particular order.

Twitter is not just for the teacher, or even the school department. Schools can gain lots from having their own whole school account. There are many ways in which you can use it too. From reporting on whole school issues, passing out messages about snow days and much more, there are very compelling reasons as to why you would want to be a ‘tweeting school’. There are a fair amount of tweeting headteachers too, but this article will be looking solely at schools.

In case it’s slipped you by, Twitter is a social media service that allows messages of 140 characters or less to be sent out into the ‘Twittersphere’ for sharing. Like many social media you can follow people, organisations, brands, events on Twitter to see the tweets that they write and find out information and read content that they want to share. Personally, I use Twitter to interact with other educators and find it an invaluable PD tool. When I am using it as a tool for my department however I use it in a completely different way.

This is a list of 30 recommended education-oriented Twitter feeds. Note: this is by no means a ‘best-of’, and is in no particular order. The list is comprised of suggestions from the public and our own choices.

As discussed in Cazzypot’s article on teacher-blogging from earlier this year, teachers are often very active in their communities. Twitter plays a huge part in this; here, Mark ‘@ICTEvangelist’ Anderson explains why he considers tweeting to be a crucial part of being a modern teacher.

That’s right - I’m that teacher in your staffroom talking about people, not by their first names, but by their Twitter handles. Have you seen @headguruteacher’s latest blog post on assessment? Yes, I simply loved his Pedagogy postcards. Such a brilliant collection of advice from him. What? That post about Christmas term and how you can make it to the end of term whilst still capturing the magic of Christmas…? So positive and full of great advice - let’s make it so we get the best out of all our community in the run up to Christmas. How can we do that?

Twitter is an indispensable aspect of many people’s working lives. As such, it’s good to know whom to follow. A follow-up to April’s 30 great British education-innovators to follow on Twitter article, here are 30 more suggested educators to follow!

This is a list of 30 recommended education-oriented Twitter feeds. Note: this is by no means a ‘best-of’, and the order is unimportant. The list is comprised of suggestions from the public and our own choices.

One pleasing outcome of Innovate My School’s ‘30 great British education-innovators to follow on Twitter’ article was that it got some of our followers talking about the use of Twitter by educators. Sue Dixon of Thinking Child is particularly interested in the different kind of tweeters that education offers. While it’s a humorous topic, it’s interesting to examine the different characters to whom we’re all now accustomed.

Twitter is a relatively new concept but it is a social media platform that the world of education has massively embraced. And you can see why; there are obvious advantages to being able to connect with so many other people from the same sphere as you; swapping ideas in real time, catching up on latest news and theories etc.

Most modern professionals have a Twitter account. The social network can offer belly laughs out-of-nowhere, factoids that can raise a smile or an eyebrow (see Andy Nyman’s account for excellent facts-of-the-day) and often real insight. Indeed, Twitter can be a superb place for getting output from superb innovators of education…

Here are thirty education specialists, mostly recommended by followers of Innovate My School. This isn’t meant to be seen as a conclusive / top list, or a ‘best of'; these are just 30 people from whom you can gather wonderfully innovative ideas.

[Given the huge amount of suggestions from our followers, this article will be the first of several. Please do keep suggestions coming, British or not!]

There are many potential benefits of using social media in the classroom: it can improve your relationship with pupils, and inspire them to spend more time on their work. Before setting up a Facebook or Twitter account, however, significant preparation is required. Here are my top 5 tips:

1. Vision

This is essential if you are going to convince your school that using social media in education is a good idea. Why do you want to use social media? Is it primarily for teaching and learning, or  communicating with students, parents or even the public?

In order to get an idea whether your use of social media has worked you will need to decide what your aims and objectives are, and assess how well these have been met later on. If you’re stuck, do some research on how other schools have used social networks. You could also check educational blogs and ask some questions on Twitter.