You Should Get Onto Twitter
- Sarah Hodgson
- May 25, 2012
- 4 min read
Twitter.
These are things I hear some people say when I ask them if they are using Twitter. I used to say those things myself. Until I was converted. Until I understood that being a part of a global network of passionate educators might actually change the way I teach. My own journey in the Twitterverse all started when a trusted colleague said: “You should get onto Twitter”. Five words that have changed everything for me as an educator.
At first I was skeptical. Wasn’t Twitter something that Ashton Kutcher and the like used to broadcast their daily movements to the world? Wasn’t it just another social network site like Facebook where you could tell friends what type of coffee you were having? Yet I was intrigued. Educators that I had enormous respect for were telling me to get on and use it. So I signed up, got an account, and started to play. Yes, play. That’s how I learn best. I need time and I need time to play. To me play is imperative to learning and one cannot survive without the other. Wait, I’m going off track here. Play will have to wait for a different post.
At first I just watched the Twitter feeds. I followed a few educator friends (the ones that encouraged me to join in the first place). Started safe. I watched them tweet. I started to learn the lingo. The abbreviations. PLN? The symbols. What on earth does # mean? Then I got Tweetdeck and suddenly I was looking at a whole different world. It was overwhelming at first. An extremely steep learning curve. But the more I explored, the more valuable I realised this tool was. My first tentative step was to retweet. Then gradually I started to tweet resources or interesting articles that I read. In December I took a leap of faith and ran a workshop to some interested colleagues – ‘Building a PLN Through Social Media’. My thinking was that I would share this amazing resource and at the same time learn more through teaching.
Now, almost one year since those first five words, I feel very comfortable operating in the Twitterverse. I’m no expert and I’m no Twitter ‘Queen’. I check Tweetdeck at least twice a day. My feeds are organised for me, which immediately makes finding things so much easier. I have become adept at scanning. I know that I miss things, but I don’t worry about that because I also know that the really good ideas come back around again and I will catch them later. I have learnt to ignore the parts of conversations I am not a part of and focus on the ones I am. I am starting to build collaborative professional relationships with educators I have never met face to face. Hopefully I will meet them one day. I’ve slowly started being more of a contributor. Seeing fellow educators blogging about their beliefs and practices has inspired me to do the same.
I am constantly learning all the time. Recently I had my first Twitter chat experience. Fast and Furious. Almost impossible to keep up with the avalanche of feeds that were tumbling into my Tweetdeck. Educators from almost every continent sharing ideas. What amazes me most is that the discussion is between educators worldwide who are passionate about what they do. Passionate about improving education. Passionate about providing students with the very best learning experiences. Passionate about going that extra mile to ensure that the kids of today are prepared as well as they can be for the world of tomorrow. My passion for all these things had been lying dormant for way too long. Joining this amazing community of educators who are committed to their own learning, as much as their students’ learning, has reignited my love of learning and my brain is on fire. For me it is my own personalised (and free!) professional development. I choose what I want to learn about and when I want to learn about it.
I understand that Twitter is not for everybody. Well, I partly understand that. There is no way that every teacher on staff could be expected to be active on Twitter, especially if the administrators of the school are not active themselves. I would argue that they should be. You cannot force people to be a part of something they see no value in.
Some get it. Some don’t.
Twitter is not going away anytime soon. I see teachers new to Twitter appearing all the time. I realise that if you are reading this you are probably already part of the Twitter community, so I’m preaching to the converted. But in case you are not, in case you are an educator who has heard about Twitter but you are not sure if it is something you should try or not… here are some indicators:
If you are constantly trying to improve your teaching, Twitter is for you.
If you want your thinking challenged, Twitter is for you.
If you are open to sharing with other educators what you know and do, Twitter is for you.
If you are interested in finding out what other educators are doing in their classrooms, Twitter is for you.
If you want to be proactive about connecting to teachers around the world, Twitter is for you.
If you want to stay up to date with the latest educational research and pedagogies, Twitter is for you.
I’ll finish with some compelling words that I read near the beginning of my Twitter journey. They gave me a good kick up the behind and made me sit up and think seriously about my approach to my own learning and development as an educator:
“I believe that teachers who aren’t reading education blogs and furthering their learning by engaging in social media are being left behind.” Edna Sackson (@whatedsaid)
Do you want to be left behind? No? Then…You should get onto Twitter. Now.
References:
Sackson, Edna. “Edublog Awards 2011… or not.” http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/edublog-awards-2011-or-not/ (accessed November 2011)
Image credits: Speech bubbles by MediaMilitia Twitter Bird by Design Reviver
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