You’ve seen hashtags in commercials and on billboards. You were uninterested. Maybe the possibility of knowing what Justin Bieber had for breakfast never intrigued you. Even when you heard rumors that educators were putting Twitter to good, collaborative use, you resisted signing up. Now, having never tweeted, you’re in CLMOOC and you want to participate in our Twitter chats on Thursdays.Your opportunity to begin tweeting with a purpose has arrived.

This guide will get you on your way to Twitter proficiency and Internet fame (or at least prepare you to tweet about CLMOOC).

For the uninitiated

If you’re brand new to Twitter, you’ll want to sign up, then check out Twitter 101.

Honing your skills

If you’ve dabbled with Twitter but still have questions, the help center will give you a tour, provide access to an FAQ, and review the basics. For a thorough one-pager on creating tweets and interacting with others on Twitter, check out Alison Seaman’s wiki, Your Online Self: Preparing for a Connectivist MOOC.

Participating in CLMOOC via Twitter

To follow Twitter conversation about CLMOOC and to participate in weekly chats on Thursdays, you’ll need to use our hashtag, #clmooc, in all your tweets related to this MOOC. (Here’s Twitter’s intro to hashtags.)

To share your creations, digital or otherwise, with participants you’ll want to include links and pictures in your tweets.

Before you participate in your first chat, you’ll want to know how to filter, or search, Twitter for a hashtag or a person. This video tutorial by Joe Dillon will probably help you make sense of the Twitter stream.

Now you’re probably ready to jump into the Twitter stream and swim. But if you really must know everything before you start…

…Still more information to prepare you for a Twitter chat

Cybrary Man has put together a comprehensive page about participating and hosting Twitter chats.

And here are a couple tools that can make twitter chats easy-peasy:

• Tweetchat
• Tchat.io

See at you #CLMOOC!