OUMindsetPlay: A "Growth Mindset" Twitter Account

To support my Canvas.MythFolklore.net experiment to create a Growth Mindset Playground, I decided to create a new Twitter account! In this post, I'll explain the reasons why I decided to create a new Twitter account for this project. You might find that some of the same reasons apply to your use of Twitter for an educational project!

It might sound a little weird to have multiple Twitter accounts, but it can be extremely useful! I now have three Twitter accounts, and it's a system that works great for me because each account has a very specific purpose of its own:

OnlineCrsLady. This is what you could call my "personal" Twitter account; it's the one where I interact with coworkers at the University of Oklahoma. It's a great space for staying in touch with on-campus events even though I do not live in Oklahoma (I teach online). 

OnlineMythIndia. This is my "class" Twitter account where I collect and reshare items of interest to the students in my Mythology class and in my Indian Epics class (hence the name of the account: OnlineMythIndia). 

OUMindsetPlay. This is the new Twitter account, the one I will be using to collect and reshare growth mindset content. I'm excited about developing new lists and people to follow at this account!

Hashtag versus Account. I started out using the #MindsetPlay hashtag, and I am continuing to use that hashtag too. Having a hashtag for a project is really valuable! When you have a hashtag for a project, that means other people can use the hashtag; so, for example, your students can contribute content by using a class-based hashtag. Meanwhile, having an account gives you more control; only my tweets and retweets show up here: @OUMindsetPlay. If I see other people using the #MindsetPlay hashtag, I can retweet, and those tweets will also show up in my account.

Live Content. One of my favorite things about Twitter widgets is that they update in practically real time... as soon as I tweet or retweet, the content appears instantly in the Canvas course space and anywhere the Twitter widget is embedded:

Account Widget in Canvas. You can see the @OUMindsetPlay account embedded in Canvas here on the homepage: Growth Mindset Playground. I put it on the homepage because this Twitter account will have lots of good new content every day!

Hashtag Widget in Canvas. I've also created a page with the #MindsetPlay hashtag embedded: Twitter Hashtag. Right now I'm the only one using that hashtag, but as I get some retweets, they will show up there, and maybe others will start to use the hashtag too. 

This is just Day Two of my new account... and so far, so good! I'll update this post as time goes by. I am very excited about having this new Twitter account, and I'm looking forward to making connections with new people this way. You can also see the new account embedded in the sidebar of this blog too. :-)