The response to my Poynter.org article, "How Journalism Educators Can Teach Students to Live Tweet Campus Events," has exceeded my expectations. It's been widely shared via Twitter from the Poynter site – indeed getting more than triple the amount of tweets for my previous three articles published there. I'm thrilled that journalism educators from across the country have embraced the idea of students learning to use Twitter as journalists.

"I'm planning my J classes for this fall at Winona State University in Winona, Minn.," Tom Grier wrote to me in an email he sent after coming across the article via an education association's tweet. "The Poynter article was quick, to the point and contained helpful links. I plan to use this in my fall classes ... with credit to you, of course."

Lindsey Wotanis of Marywood University in Pennsylvania also wants her journalism students to live tweet this fall. She asked a great question in her email: "How, if you found it necessary, did you deal with students who did not have access to either a smartphone or laptop when tweeting a live event? We are a small, liberal arts campus, and so it's very possible that some of my students may not have access. I don't want to abandon this idea, but am concerned about how best to handle a situation like that. Thanks for sharing your idea with the world!"

Certainly, this situation does arise when the assignment is introduced, as a few students will hold up what they like to call a "dumbphone." However, it has never kept anyone from adapting to the assignment and I had five classes do it last year. First, tell the class that smartphones are only so as long as the person using it is smart. Also, point out that only 12 to 16 tweets are required per assignment to emphasize that it's about quality, not not quantify.

What happens next is that a student without a smartphone or likely is likely already used to tweeting. He or she will readily show the others how to do it, and it's always a good thing – bonding! – when a students teaches another. This article, "No Smartphone for Irene? You Can Still Use Twitter, Facebook," is a good start for those with dumbphones.

I prefer students learn to tweet with a phone so they know what to do if dispatched to cover breaking news outside. On the other hand, I like to use Evernote on my laptop whenever live tweeting. The awesome note-taking application makes it easy to take down information, and is wonderfully integrated with Twitter so tweeting is quite simple. That said, while we wish more speakers and organizers would appreciate live tweeting at conferences, it might be best if a a large group of students with laptops sits to the side or in the back of the room.

Once again, thanks everyone for the positive feedback on my article and my students' success with live tweeting. I look forward to hearing how Tom's and Lindsey's students fare with the assignments this fall. Keep the questions coming – and remember to visit http://www.herblowe.com/live-tweeting.html for updates about the process.

I had the honor of offering a 10-minute "show-and-share" presentation on live tweeting campus events at the 2012 Teachapalooza conference for journalism educators last month at the Poynter Institute. Those who follow my blog know my journalism students in the Diederich College of Communication regularly live tweet events at Marquette University. I enjoy promoting my students' success and thought sharing it at Teachapalooza would be pretty cool.

Many of my fellow educators there seemed to appreciate the presentation and concept. Some asked for a handout so they could try it in their fall courses. I didn't have any – shame on me! But I promised to share more via the conference listserve. Well, today I can finally make good on my promise. And thanks to my friends at Poynter.org, there's hope that many more journalism instructors will have their students live tweeting this next semester.

Yesterday, the website published my article, "How Journalism Educators Can Teach Students to Live Tweet Campus Events," in its How Tos>Journalism Education section. Expertly edited by Mallary Tenore, it stresses four points: First and foremost, focus on the fundamentals; use class time to show students how it's done; make the first experience worthwhile and set goals moving forward, and continue encouraging your students.

The article is getting a great response; more than my prior Poynter.org submissions: "Flash: Educator and Students Disagree," "Some Journalism Among the Madness" and "Digital Divide in Mobile News Interest." Interestingly, when Tenore first tweeted that the article was published, she asked for feedback, something I need to do better when I post things on Twitter. Indeed, among the replies was this advice from the editorial staff @TheSkannerNews: Prepare material in advance-don't just wing it; know your hashtags!; be ready to #FF your fellow livetweeters."

My article is likely as long as Poynter.org could likely stand it. There's so much more me and others could offer about educators and students aiming to live tweeting campus events. Please visit my related blog – www.herblowe.com/live-tweeting.html – to see additional posts about the concept and my students' success. Don't hestitate to contact me if you have any questions. I know you and your students will enjoy the experience.

I learned something while witnessing a great News University webinar a few weeks ago, "Social Media in the Classroom," that will hopefully make things better for me and my students – especially for their live tweeting assignments and our interaction on Twitter and Facebook. 

Led by the course's instructor, Jen Lee Reeves, and hosted by NewsU director Vicki Krueger, the webinar focused on how social media can enhance learning for students, why it's worth taking the risk in the classroom and examples that have worked. Reeves, the interactive director at KOMU-TV and komu.com, was amazing. Just learning about her awesome website at http://www.jenleereeves.com was worth the cost and 75 minutes at the computer.

Reeves also teaches new media as an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Midway through the session she said she focuses much of her interaction with students using the hashtag #jenclass. She has a Tumblr account and a Facebook group for current and former students, both identified by #jenclass. She also uses it for hashtag conversations with her students on Twitter, and expects it to happen during class time.

OMG! Why didn't I think of #loweclass before? I maintained a mandatory Facebook group for each of my courses last year at Marquette: Digital Journalism I (JOUR 1100), Digital Journalism II (JOUR 1550) and MU JOUR 4953 (Elections). Each time I wrote a new blog post meant having to put it into each group. This risked annoying those students who were in two or three of the groups, though I didn't want to neglect those who were only in one. Now, having a single #loweclass Facebook group means one post reaches all of my current and former students.

The new hashtag will have even greater impact for us on Twitter. My students regularly live tweet campus events and must include a class hashtag within each tweet as part of a given assignment. Using #JOUR1100 #JOUR1550 or #JOUR4953 isn't too bad if you're only using one of them. But that's 29 characters – remember, Twitter allows only 140 per tweet – whenever I want to get everyone's attention in all three classes during an assignment. The same applies when I want to share a weblink to a nicely written story or a link to a webpage offering nice job-hunting tips.

Using #loweclass will instead keep all three classes in the same hashtag conversation. And for the biggest live-tweeting opportunities, when our collective efforts causes an event hashtag to trend on Twitter, well, having #loweclass in each tweet means that my hashtag should like trend as well. That would not be a bad thing – would it?

I also require my students after every class to tweet about something they learned that day. Again, they must use their class hashtag, which means I have to look at three different hashtags – way too cumbersome and complicated – and the students only follow their respective conversation. Using #loweclass instead produces only one conversation and would help me make sure everyone's in it; yes, it will even help me take attendance. Better still, students and educators whom I can encounter nationwide would hopefully participate, too. Yes, the possibilities abound, including having my students live tweet when we have guest speakers in the new #loweclass. I'm excited!

It's so great when an online article I'm reading in bed grabs me so much that I jump up ready to blog about it? That just happened after a tweet by @WriteOnTrack_L led me to its new blog post, "The Value of Twitter at Conferences."

The tweet caught my eye because it referenced Tim Cigelske, who manages Marquette University's social media accounts. The writer, Lorna Sixsmith, shares several reasons why she, Cigelske and others support tweeting at conferences. Among them: relaxing the audience; increasing its size; creating more engagement with the speaker or panelists; fostering greater attention from those tweeting, and providing instant feedback via the hashtag.

Sixsmith, a copywriter and social media consultant, also offers other blog posts I think would help my journalism students and journalism educators elsewhere. In "The Power of the Hashtag," she writes about how a targeted word after the # symbol can help summarize an event, bring attention to a particular topic and unite tweeters. I really like that Sixsmith uses tweets with hashtags to help keep notes. "140 characters is perfect for note taking," she writes.

Next we have "Why Tweet at Conferences." Sixsmith discusses in this post the benefits for organizers (free publicity, instant feedback, generate interest, keep attendees happy) and attendees (networking, icebreaking, concentrating, sensitizing, sharing and, my favorite, gaining more followers). There's also "How to Tweet at Conferences," in which Sixsmith gives both sides of the lectern "some tips on how to get it right." They include ensuring the hashtag is visible, wifi is available and working, and speakers' Twitter usernames are given.

Finally, back to Cigelske. Sixsmith tweeted that he inspired her latest post with his compelling "Dealing With a Distracted Audience" article in the July edition of Toastmaster magazine. I wish more speakers in academe would heed the subhead: "Don't be put off by those who text or tweet when you speak." Anyway, Cigelske urges organizers and speakers to embrace live tweeting. "When audiences are involved, they are more engaged," he writes. "You want audiences to become companions as you lead them to the final destination or purpose of your speech."

I couldn't agree more. Many thanks to Sixsmith and Cigelske for their thoughtful offerings.

I have shared how my journalism students in the Diederich College of Communication "live tweet" campus events at Marquette University – and use Storify to present their stories afterward. (See "Using Twitter for Journalism Mightily," "'Oh My!' Enberg Lecture Trends" and "Classes Live Tweet #muawards.") Until now, however, I could only tell you about it. Now, thanks to a new web-based tool called Storination, it's much easier to show you.

Storination is still in its infancy; one must request an invite from the entity before using it. I only heard about it thanks to Benet Wilson, chairwoman of the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force and who students affectionally call "Aunt Benet." As she writes in a task force blog post, "Missed #NABJ? Check Out Storination," the tool "allows you to put all the Storifys from a single event — like #NABJ12 — in one place for folks to read and share." Nice!

The Storination interface is easy to use, though it would be nice to have more flexibility reorder the imported Storifys. Getting cover images to work with text is another challenge; the cover image offered above is OK. Anyway, today I created several storyboards – that's what Storination calls the virtual spaces used to create an online set of Storifys – mostly based on the Twitter hashtags used for the campus events my classes live tweeted en masse.

Check out "Journalism Classes Live Tweet Presidential Inauguration," "Milwaukee Photographer Shares Cuba Perspective," "Hall of Famer Dick Enberg Lectures at Marquette," "Spurlock Speaks at Marquette," "Diederich College Recognizes Five Distinguished Alumni" and "Marquette Journalism Students Live Tweet Campus Events."

Before Storination, I used a web browser to bookmark all the student Storifys. An inelegant option, especially given likely many more to come. Besides, a main reason for students to live tweet and use Storify is so they have more to show afterward than just a 500-word story that only their instructor reads. The new tool should better enable students to compare their efforts and learn from one another. Beyond that, Storination wants users to create an online "nation," where people share social stories on the same topic. Look out soon for the first #loweclass nation!

When Marquette University named NBA coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers its 2012 Alumnus of the Year, I set about having a few of my students "live tweet" the gala awards dinner on April 28. Unfortunately, I couldn't persuade the powers that be to let that happen. But, fortunately, Dean Lori Bergen enabled even more of my students to live tweet the Diederich College of Communication's awards brunch that morning. (Please see my previous posts on live tweeting: "Using Twitter for Journalism Mightily" and "'Oh My!' Enberg Lecture Trends.") 

The brunch being a Saturday affair, I required all 14 students in my Digital Journalism (JOUR 1100) I course to participate, and invited those in my other classes who had not fulfilled their semester's live-tweet assignments. The dean and I considered the event an opportunity for them to showcase what they are learning to alumni, and to expose these aspiring journalists and communicators to those who have had wonderful careers after leaving Johnston Hall.   

The honorees included Kathryn Zahony Livingston, Steven Bertrand, Lisa Osborne Ross, Jason DeRusha and Christopher Pardon. Bertrand, Ross and I attended the then-College of Journalism at Marquette in the '80s, and I enjoyed reconnecting with her and MU about the same time a few years ago when we both worked in Washington. The students clearly enjoyed learning about each alumni's experiences in Johnston and beyond. "This wonderful ceremony has me feeling inspired," junior Emily Pettinger tweeted while also using the two required hashtags: #MUAwards, and for her class, #JOUR1100. Sophomore Joe Kvartunas tweeted: "Touching moment here at table 2. Mrs. Ross is tearing up on stage while her family is beaming with pride. #muawards #JOUR1550."

As is always the case when my classes live tweet a campus event, #muawards soared to trending status in Milwaukee on Twitter! Afterward, for their homework assignment, each JOUR 1100 student and most of the others had to create a Storify – curating, of course, from all the tweets and related digital media, and crafting sufficient text for context. They didn't seem to mind, however, when they got to meet Rondell Sheridan, the MU alumnus and actor/director/comedian they know best as Victor Baxter, the father from Disney's sitcom "That's So Raven."

One more thing: the bowtie. For some reason, freshman Christopher Chavez declared in class that all of the men should wear one to the event. He only found two takers, Patrick Leary, a fellow first-year student, and me. Problem is I had never tied a bowtie. My wife typically handles that duty but was 100 miles away. Thank goodness for YouTube! A video helped me figure it out! Not before, though, my students tweeted about me being late to the ceremony.

The Diederich College of Communication presented Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg as this year's Axthelm Memorial Lecture speaker last week at the Alumni Memorial Union on campus. Hundreds of people packed a ballroom to hear Enberg, a 14-time Emmy Award winner, reflect on his experiences with Al McGuire, his longtime broadcast partner and, of course, the beloved coach who led Marquette's men's basketball team to the 1977 NCAA championship. Calling his lecture "Communicating in a World of Noise," he also shared his five "points of power" for succeeding in journalism: pause, perseverance, presentation, humor and kindness.

Enberg also met with students and classes during his latest visit to Marquette – he served as its commencement speaker in 2009 – including a "news conference" after the lecture for my Digital Journalism I (JOUR 1100) class that my Diederich College colleagues James Pokrywczynski and Julie Rosene arranged. Surprising that only one of my 14 students had heard of Enberg when I first said they would use Twitter to cover his lecture. Certainly, I had heard him exclaim his signature "Oh my!" during countless significant sports events of the past generation.

This was the first live-tweeting experience for most of the students. (Of course, I shared what their predecessors had accomplished by live tweeting Marquette's presidential inauguration last fall.) We had practiced in class the week before and some had used the 2012 Grammy Awards and other recent events to try it out. In class after the lecture, they said the #muenberg live tweeting helped them, among other things, focus on their writing; extend their journalism to as far as Puerto Rico; capture moments not typically reported in news articles, and inform and engage MU alumni, students and employees unable to attend. We then discussed curating social media, employing tools and tips used by many professional news agencies and people worldwide.

Indeed, a few students from my other courses this semester (JOUR 1550 and JOUR 4953) also live-tweeted the lecture for their Storify assignments. And the word is spreading across campus. Last night, the Marquette University Student Government speakers commissioner emailed me to ask if I would assign students to live tweet Morgan Spurlock's campus visit on Thursday. The commissioner wrote that "friends studying journalism" had referred her to me. Actually, some in my JOUR 1550 class already plan to live tweet this event; they even had me change the deadline so they could. Still, I love it that students outside of Johnston Hall appreciate what's happening in my classes – and, yes, hope more of them will answer the commissioner's call.

Finally, it must be shared that #muenberg trended in Milwaukee, reaching the same success that #muprez achieved when my classes live tweeted the inauguration. Another sign of progress: Diederich College Dean Lori Bergen encouraged those tweeting to use #muenberg while welcoming them to the Axthelm lecture. With apologies to Enberg, must admit that when the dean did that, I could only say to myself, "Oh my!"

As 2011 ends, please allow me to revisit my proudest moment as a journalism faculty member with a new Storify.

In late September, my digital journalism students at Marquette University made the most of an extraordinary campus opportunity – a presidential inauguration – that offered trial-by-fire experience and demonstrated the power of social media as a tool for journalism. Instead of the typical reporting and writing exercise, in which the students would each produce a 500-word story that just I would read – sigh! – they used Twitter to report on the inauguration. Their tweeting allowed countless Marquette alumni and supporters across the world to witness the ceremony live.

Tim Cigelske, a MU communication specialist and the campus social media guru, lauded the students' efforts. "I never thought we would surpass Sweet Sixteen," Cigelske said of the Twitter explosion following the men's basketball team's success last spring. Not only did their inauguration tweeting do so, it also netted the top eight trending topics in Milwaukee that day – "which is huge," he said. (My Storify includes just a sampling from that day.)

The inauguration exercise also readied my students to use Twitter to cover events as reporters through the term. Indeed, live tweeting was only half of the inauguration assignment. Each student also had to create a Storify about the coverage. (The Poynter Institute offers five types of stories that make good Storifys.) 

No one knew what to expect beforehand. Those among my students who had tweeted regularly had mostly offered youthful banter. I stressed for class-related tweets using complete sentences, abiding AP style and correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, and no long or uncomplimentary hashtags such as #onmywaytowalgreenstobuylicorice and #icouldrantbutiwont. Both classes practiced with the Princess Diana eulogy before the ceremony. Each student then had to produce at least 12 tweets with their class hashtag and #muprez among the 140 characters.

After live tweeting beyond my wildest dreams, the next generation of professional scribes acted like true journalists – they went searching for food, assessed their own performance and found reasons to complain or blame their editor, that is, professor. That's OK. So gratifying when my students' work matters. Cigelske, formerly of The Associated Press, put it best when he told them during his class visit: "It was like you were all Associated Press reporters. You provided the color and the personality of being right there. You pretty much covered the spectrum – from breaking news to context to archival coverage. This is great training for ... your journalism careers, wherever it takes you."