{"id":584,"date":"2012-09-06T08:32:47","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T12:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2012-09-12T14:56:40","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T18:56:40","slug":"update-easily-add-current-course-relevant-news-to-your-moodle-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/2012\/09\/06\/update-easily-add-current-course-relevant-news-to-your-moodle-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Easily add current, course-relevant news to your Moodle courses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ACanary_Wharf_news_ticker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1611\" title=\"News Ticker\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/04\/news_ticker-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"News Ticker\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><em>UPDATE: This post was updated on 9\/12\/2012 after Twitter changed its widget creator. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"50 ways to use Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/www.onlinecolleges.net\/2009\/06\/08\/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom\/\"><em> <\/em>Ideas for using Twitter<\/a> in higher education are <a title=\"Twitter in academia\" href=\"http:\/\/academhack.outsidethetext.com\/home\/2008\/twitter-for-academia\/\">easy to find<\/a>.\u00a0One simple way to use Twitter is to embed a widget into your Moodle course. Embedding Twitter into Moodle is an easy way to add current, course-relevant news and opinions to your course. Twitter is full of companies, news organizations, non-profits, professional associations, activists, politicians, celebrities and more \u2013 nearly every discipline can find something of value on Twitter. It\u2019s easy, <del>and you don\u2019t even need a Twitter account (though you\u2019ll have more options if you do) <\/del>and all you need is a Twitter account. This post includes ideas for using Twitter in Moodle and step-by-step instructions for adding a Twitter widget to your Moodle course.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-1563\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Ideas for use<\/h2>\n<p><strong>IDEA 1: <\/strong>Follow professional organizations and news sources relevant to your course to start classroom discussions<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Examples Twitter accounts of professional organizations or news sources: <a title=\"AdAge\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/adage\">@AdAge <\/a>(advertising\/marketing), <a title=\"Chemistry World\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/ChemistryWorld\">@ChemistryWorld<\/a> (chemistry), @<a title=\"Sociologically\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/sociologically\">sociologically <\/a>(sociology), <a title=\"AIGA Design\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/AIGAdesign\">@AIGAdesign (design)<\/a>, <a title=\"Getty Museum\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/GettyMuseum\">@GettyMuseum (art)<\/a>, <a title=\"Wall Street Journal Business\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/WSJBusiness\">@WSJBusiness (Business)<\/a>, <a title=\"US Physical Therapy\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/USPhysTherapy\">@USPhysTherapy<\/a> (physical therapy), <a title=\"WWII Today\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/WWIIToday\">@WWIIToday<\/a> (history)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>IDEA 2: <\/strong>Follow known professionals in the field and help students develop their professional social media network<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Find scholars, CEOs, writers, activists, and more. Go to <a title=\"WeFollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wefollow.com\">www.wefollow.com<\/a> and search for the discipline you want to find people. For example, for a list of people who post about \u201cwriting\u201d,\u00a0 <a title=\"WeFollow Writing\" href=\"http:\/\/wefollow.com\/twitter\/writer%20\">search for writing<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>IDEA 3: <\/strong>Find brands or marketing firms for examples of social media marketing and customer service<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Example Twitter accounts from well known companies: <a title=\"Best Buy\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/BestBuy\">@BestBuy<\/a>, <a title=\"Zappos\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/Zappos_Service\">@Zappos_Service<\/a>, <a title=\"Comcast\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/comcastcares\">@comcastcares<\/a>, <a title=\"Starbucks\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/Starbucks\">@Starbucks<\/a>, <a title=\"Southwest\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/SouthwestAir\">@SouthwestAir<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>IDEA 4: <\/strong>Find international organizations or native speakers who post in their native language<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Examples of Twitter accounts for foreign language courses: <a title=\"Spanish Bot\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/spanishbot\">@spanishbot<\/a>, <a title=\"German Language\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/germanlanguage\">@germanlanguage<\/a>, <a title=\"Spiegel\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/SPIEGEL_English\">@SPIEGEL_English<\/a>, <a title=\"French Today\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/frenchToday\">@frenchToday<\/a>, <a title=\"French Embassy in the US\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/franceintheus\">@franceintheus<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>IDEA 5: <\/strong>Encourage students to write about course-relevant experiences they have outside of the classroom and label those tweets with a course-specific <a title=\"Hashtag\" href=\"https:\/\/support.twitter.com\/articles\/49309\">hashtag<\/a>. Or, encourage students to retweet news they have found on Twitter and share it with the whole the class.<\/p>\n<h3>Twitter account<\/h3>\n<p>A Twitter account is required to make a widget. <a title=\"Create a Twitter account\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/signup\">Create a Twitter account here. <\/a><\/p>\n<h3>How do I find people\/companies to follow?<\/h3>\n<p>Websites like <a title=\"We Follow\" href=\"http:\/\/wefollow.com\/\">WeFollow.com<\/a> can help find interesting accounts on Twitter. It works best to search by a topic, like chemistry or economics, rather than with a specific person or organization name. If you are looking for a specific person\/organization, it is easiest to search at <a title=\"Twitter Search\" href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/search\"><span class=\"linkification-ext\">twitter.com\/search<\/span>.<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>How to embed Twitter into Moodle<\/h2>\n<p>Embedding Twitter into your Moodle course involves two steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Create the Twitter widget<\/li>\n<li>Paste the code for your      widget into Moodle<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"attachment_2472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 584px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/widget-in-moodle.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2472 \" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Twitter widget in Moodle\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/widget-in-moodle.png\" alt=\"Twitter widget in Moodle\" width=\"574\" height=\"292\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of Twitter embedded in Moodle<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Create the Twitter widget<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Step 1:<\/strong> <a title=\"Create Twitter widget\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/about\/resources\/widgets\">To create a widget, click here<\/a> and sign in with your Twitter account or create a new account.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 2: <\/strong>Click on \u201cCreate new.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/05\/createnew.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2461\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Create new widget\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/05\/createnew.png\" alt=\"Create new widget\" width=\"603\" height=\"399\" \/><\/a>At the next screen, you\u2019ll decide what kind of tweets you want the widget to display.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>User timeline<\/strong>: displays all the tweets from any public Twitter account. For example, to follow all the tweets from Advertising Age, type in AdAge<\/li>\n<li><strong>Favorites<\/strong>: displays the tweets from any public Twitter account that were marked as a favorite. Favorites are a good way to curate your Twitter feed. Instead of pushing everything from your Twitter account to your widget, you can mark the best tweets as favorites and have those appear in the widget.<\/li>\n<li><strong>List<\/strong>: displays the tweets from the lists you have created on Twitter. Lists are a good idea if you want to use Twitter in several courses. Create a list for each course that includes sources relevant to each course. <a title=\"Twitter Lists\" href=\"https:\/\/support.twitter.com\/articles\/76460-how-to-use-twitter-lists\">Read more information on how to create a list in Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0<a title=\"ProfHacker\" href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/blogs\/profhacker\/using-twitter-lists\/39353\">why you would want to<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Search<\/strong>: displays the tweets that include a specific <a title=\"Hashtag definition\" href=\"https:\/\/support.twitter.com\/articles\/49309\">hashtag<\/a> or word(s). Search is used to display all tweets related to an event or theme. For example, to display all tweets about the Democratic National Convention, you would search for #DNC2012.\u00a0Warning: if you search for a hashtag or term, you have no control over what will appear in the widget. If someone posts to Twitter using your search term and profanity, it will appear in your Moodle course.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/timelinesource.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2466\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Timeline Source\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/timelinesource.png\" alt=\"Timeline Source\" width=\"603\" height=\"513\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 3:<\/strong> Select your timeline source and enter the appropriate Twitter account (@AdAge) or hashtag (#DNC2012).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 4:<\/strong> Enter Elon\u2019s Moodle domain:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/elon.mrooms3.net\/\">elon.mrooms3.net<\/a> and click \u201cCreate widget.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/domain.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2468\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Domain\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/domain.png\" alt=\"Domain\" width=\"258\" height=\"399\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 5:<\/strong> Copy the HTML code.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/copyhtml.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2469\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Copy HTML Code\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/copyhtml.png\" alt=\"Copy HTML Code\" width=\"585\" height=\"316\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">In Moodle<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Step 7: <\/strong>Log into Moodle\u00a0and go to the course where you want to add the Twitter widget. Click on \u201cTurn editing on\u201d in the upper-right corner of the screen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 8:<\/strong> In the left-side column of the screen, look for a heading called \u201cAdd a block.\u201d In the drop-down menu, chose \u201cHTML.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/HTMLblock.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2496\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"HTML Block\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/HTMLblock.png\" alt=\"HTML Block\" width=\"249\" height=\"411\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Step 9:<\/strong> That should have added a new block the course page. By default, the new block is called \u201c(new HTML block).\u201d Click on the \u201cConfiguration\u201d icon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/newhtmlblock.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2497\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Configure\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/newhtmlblock.png\" alt=\"Configure\" width=\"233\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Step 10:<\/strong> In the next screen, click on the \u201cEdit HTML Source\u201d icon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/togglehtml.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2498\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Toggle HTML\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/togglehtml.png\" alt=\"Toggle HTML\" width=\"549\" height=\"207\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Step 11:<\/strong> Paste the HTML code inside the text box.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/pasted_twitterHTML.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2499\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"HTML from Twitter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/pasted_twitterHTML.png\" alt=\"HTML from Twitter\" width=\"656\" height=\"270\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Step 12: <\/strong>Click on  \u201cSave changes.\u201d That\u2019s it! Your Twitter widget should now appear in the left-side  navigation of your Moodle course. If you prefer to have the widget near the top, you can move it anywhere in the sides of the screen (the block areas). To move it, click on the four-headed arrow then click on a pink rectangle to move it to that location.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/twitter_left.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2501\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Twitter - Left column\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/twitter_left.png\" alt=\"Twitter - Left column\" width=\"210\" height=\"620\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Note: If you need to make any changes to your widget, log into <a title=\"Twitter widgets\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/settings\/widgets\">Twitter <\/a>and adjust your widget as needed.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>To delete the widget from Moodle, click on the \u201cDelete\u201d icon right above the widget.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/Twitter_delete.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2502\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Delete\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/09\/Twitter_delete.png\" alt=\"Delete\" width=\"215\" height=\"176\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in other ideas for using Twitter for teaching and learning, contact <a href=\"mailto:tlt@elon.edu\">Teaching and Learning Technologies.<\/a> If you are new to Twitter, check out our guide to <a title=\"Getting started with Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/technology-ethics\/social-media\/getting-started-with-twitter\/\">Getting started with Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Do you have other ideas for using Twitter in Moodle? Let us know about it in the comments.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>UPDATE: Post updated on 9\/12\/2012 after Twitter updated its widget creator.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Canary Wharf image\" href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ACanary_Wharf_news_ticker.jpg\">Canary Wharf news ticker image by Wikimedia Commons user Senseiich<\/a> \/ <a title=\"Creative Commons License\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/deed.en\">Creative Commons licensed BY-SA 3.0<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>About the author<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/02\/dreis2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-769\" style=\"margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;\" title=\"JANUARY 10, 2012 - Daniel Reis. (photo by Kim Walker)\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/technology\/files\/2012\/02\/dreis2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"90\" height=\"126\" \/><\/a><a title=\"Dan Reis\" href=\"http:\/\/www.elon.edu\/directories\/profile\/?user=dreis2\">Dan Reis <\/a>is an Instructional Technologist with Elon University\u2019s Teaching and Learning Technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ideas for using Twitter in higher education are easy to find. One simple way to use Twitter is to embed a widget into your Moodle course. Embedding Twitter into Moodle is an easy way to add current, course-relevant news and opinions to your course.  <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/2012\/09\/06\/update-easily-add-current-course-relevant-news-to-your-moodle-courses\/\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1716,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21426,19535,736,795,737],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moodle","category-moodle-musings","category-social-media","category-teaching-and-learning","category-twitter"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}