Wednesday, April 7, 2010

BP19_04072010_Twitter Feed on Your Moodle Page

Okay. So maybe this is a simple, obvious tip. Or maybe it is so obvious that you just never thought to try it before. The short version is that you can create a Twitter Widget and embed the code into your Moodle class page to create a news feed that can be updated in a matter of seconds, without going updating the whole page, or editing your news forum, or starting a new discussion that you hope your students will see.

The Widget maker allows the user to determine text color, frame color, tweet background, and more options, although it does not yet allow the user to determine font size or font style. The user can select from an automatically scrolling window to one with a scrollbar or one that only shows the last few tweets--the number to be determined, again, by the user.

This has been a wildly successful tool in my course, and while only one of my students actually follows the Twitter feed, all students access the feed every time they log into my Moodle course page. (Click on the image to see a larger view of this resource.)

Customize your look to fit your school colors. If you are unfamiliar with color codes search for "html color codes" or use a site that provides with both a color palette and a selection of web safe colors, such as the one at http://www.quackit.com/html/html_color_codes.cfm