(image from twitter.com)
I have been slowly working at following anyone connected to education and I have been gradually accumulating followers. However, now that I know how twitter works I will need to continue to work at gaining followers if I want to be able to pose a question and receive unlimited replies. Right now I only have about 170 followers. This doesn't begin to compare to Alec's over 7,000 followers (I am sure that he has been on twitter longer than I have).
So although I may not be able to tweet a question and receive unlimited replies, I still have found twitter to be quite beneficial. I follow many educators since the reason I started twittering was for its potential as a professional development tool. Many of these educators post excellent websites, articles, and other resources related to the field of education. One of the articles tweeted by a teacher, I later used in my education math class. Several resources posted were valuable during my pre-internship. Many other resources shared have potential in my upcoming internship.
Another benefit to twitter is receiving feedback. I posted my teaching portfolio on twitter and received encouragement from others and I also received tips related to a collection of technology resources I started compiling in the form of a blog.
In addition to connecting to educators on twitter who I only know through twitter, I can also connect with my peers from the University. During our pre-internship twitter was a place where we could ask each other questions and share valuable resources.
I would recommend using twitter to anyone involved in education. It's a professional learning community on steroids. Once you start following the right people you will find all sorts of interesting tweets on issues in education, valuable resources, quotes, anything really, and you will be connected with people who you can ask questions and learn from. (And of course you can use twitter for personal interests following celebrities, companies, or sports networks.)
twitter by Seung WoonLee CC
3 comments:
I have been on twitter for about two years and as you say, it has become the essential professional networking tool. Fantastic the ideas and resources that have come my way. I am very much the listener, but I try to offer feedback when I can. people need to know there thoughts reached someone. Ursula K LaGuinn said we read so we know we are not alone. I extend that to say we write so we know we are not alone. Otherwise we would keep our thoughts to ourselves. Twitter connects us with ideas, true, but it also connects us with the lived experience of others. Can you comprehend the isolation I felt as a young teacher in rural Saskatchewan before the internet? We are so lucky now.
I met Alec through Twitter and he is an amazing resource and connector. I've been on for three years and have a fair number of followers/ following. It takes time and effort to build a dialog with the educators. It also helps for you to try to reach out and share - like you did with the post. The more you get comfortable with exchanging ideas with individuals, the more people you will meet, and the bigger and stronger your network will grow. Best wishes in your course with Dean Shareski. It will be short, but you'll learn a lot.
Thanks, I am already learning a lot!
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