After being involved in social media for over a decade, I have made a few observations that might be helpful to folks who use social media, more specifically Twitter, to develop and maintain a Personal Learning Network. I started my Twitter account with a plan and focus to use it to develop collegial sources for my professional learning. That may be different from why most people sign up for Twitter, but that is an educator’s perspective that may not have been imagined by Twitter’s founders.
Using Twitter for professional learning requires a collaborative mindset. Being collaborative requires more than just consuming ideas from others. It requires sharing, commenting, reflecting and sharing again. This requires work. Twitter for professional learning is not a passive exercise. It does require time and effort. The rewards and benefits however, can more than outweigh the effort.
The key to having valuable and relevant information arriving on a Twitterstream is totally dependent on who is being followed. In order to get thoughtful and credible information tweeted to one’s timeline, thoughtful and credible educators need to be followed. Who one follows is the single most important factor in succeeding at professional learning when using Twitter. Maintaining and upgrading that follow list takes time and effort. Each of those follows is a person. People vary in their involvement in anything from time to time. They may lose interest, becoming inactive for a period of time, or maybe forever. One’s follow list needs to be constantly updated to accommodate those who drop off the stream.
Additionally, an educator’s interest may begin to branch out. In my time on social media the iPad, smartphones, 1:1 laptops, 1:1 chromebooks, Flipped classrooms, STEM, Rigor, and many other initiatives were introduced to education. With each of these introductions new educator experts emerged. All had to be added to my follow list if I was to maintain relevance. As initiatives develop in education new people most familiar with those initiatives need to be followed. Educators who are vocal and knowledgeable while involved in Twitter chats are another group from which I add follows. People who engage me in thoughtful education tweets are also most often followed. I usually look at a perspective follow’s profile to assure their educator credentials before I commit.
It is easy to get a follow list much larger than one can handily manage with all of these follow considerations. To simplify and organize tweets, chats, hashtags and groups of follows, I employ TweetDeck. Hootsuite is a similar tool. I am able to create dedicated columns that follow specific hashtags, groups, or individuals in addition to separating out my Twitterstream, Notifications and Direct Messages. Each of these designations gets an individual column.
Being a collaborative educator in the 21st Century requires that an educator be connected to other educators. With the tools of technology available today educators are only isolated by choice. Since most districts do not send a majority of educators to national, statewide, or even local education conferences, the virtual connection is the best alternative. Technology today enables that to happen. It is however incumbent on each educator to work to make those connections. It requires a collaborative mindset as well as a willingness to learn. It requires educators to be what they profess to their students, “You must be a Life Long Learner!”
The time investment to accomplish this can be as little as twenty minutes a day. The warning here however is that often times a learner may actually get caught up in the learning and spend more time than planned on a given topic. Social media opens educators to the pedagogy, and methodology of others. It offers transparency to policies. It questions the status Quo. It forces reflective thinking. It acts as a megaphone for new ideas. It gives educators a voice in the discussion of their own profession. None of this will happen however unless an educator comes to the table with a collaborative mindset and a willingness to spend time collaborating. Educators should never expect less from themselves than they expect of their students. A good teacher is also a good learner, and a good learner can always become a great teacher.
You talked me into joining Twitter a year ago at the Tech Summit in Westchester, and I was at best, reluctant. I have become a complete convert. I follow inspiring teachers, I learn about upcoming trends in Education, and I participate in chats that help me grow my network. Whenever I need a boost, I log in and it fills my sails. Thank you Tom, for dragging me kicking and screaming into Twitter. I will not question you ever again.
I teach a college course on Tech in Education to pre-service teachers. Every semester I re-evaluate whether Twitter is still the place for pre-service teachers grow their PLN, and every semester I am reassured by my own Twitter experiences that yes, of course Twitter is the PLN Ed Champ.
Every semester when we start to discuss Twitter, a 20 yr old invariably says, “Twitter, that was so 10th grade.” And while, yes, Instagram is the new Social media hot spot for the general public, I assure them that they need to experience Twitter through an educator’s lens. Most are quickly blown away by the wealth of teacher learning that occurs on Twitter. This year I even had them participate in a Twitter chat and most were blown away again by the Twitter Ed community and how much we can learn from our peers.
I couldn’t agree more with your article on the importance of the quality of people you follow. Over the semesters I’ve made their follow lists a bigger part of the task, as the content of that Twitter stream makes all the difference.
Next semester, I think that this blog post will be require reading before we embark on Twitter!
As always thanks Tom for your blog. As I am sure you know, I am very passionate about Twitter, and I think your recent blogs posts on it have been great starting points for many teachers. They have reminded me not to overwhelm people with the Twitter jargon.
There is nothing more powerful than collaboration and learning from amazing people, and Twitter is a great tool for doing such. I love your last statement about good/great teachers/learners.
[…] What is Collaboration for Professional Learning? | My Island View “The time investment to accomplish this can be as little as twenty minutes a day. The warning here however is that often times a learner may actually get caught up in the learning and spend more time than planned on a given topic. Social media opens educators to the pedagogy, and methodology of others. It offers transparency to policies. It questions the status Quo. It forces reflective thinking. It acts as a megaphone for new ideas. It gives educators a voice in the discussion of their own profession. None of this will happen however unless an educator comes to the table with a collaborative mindset and a willingness to spend time collaborating. Educators should never expect less from themselves than they expect of their students. A good teacher is also a good learner, and a good learner can always become a great teacher” […]