Twitter: I Think I Figured It Out

Back in the spring of 2009, I was serving as Technology Coordinator for a K-8 private school. That job was daunting, and required me to wear several different hats:

• I taught "Computers" as a subject for grades 5-8. Keyboarding skills, digital citizenship, research skills, word processing, spreadsheets, multimedia tools, and general computer literacy were all included as parts of the curriculum.
• I was "the guy" for any and all tech support. I used to say, "If it plugs in, it's my problem." And that is sort of the way it went...one day I came to work and someone had left a boombox on my desk with a note: "This CD player doesn't work." So...yeah...
• I was supposed to be a sort of technology integration coach for my colleagues. I think this part was probably the aspect I was most passionate about, but also the part I was least likely to be able to do, with the first two on my plate. But this meant I tried to become familiar with as many different technologies as I could, so when people came asking questions, I would have answers.

It was in this way that I first joined Twitter in the spring of 2009; I had heard of Twitter before that, and I had read an article in Wired magazine (yep, I'm that geek...) about the way people were connecting with Twitter. And I had a few friends on Facebook who were talking about how much they liked Twitter.

So I joined up.

It's funny reading those first tweets. Like this one, that showed up in my Timehop today:

If you read this blog with any degree of regularity, you will know the value I place on Twitter as an essential part of my personal learning network (PLN). But it took me awhile...

It took me a while to start connecting with other educators, but once I found a couple to follow, that got me more invested in learning through Twitter.

It took me a while to start using hashtags, but once I learned that dozens (or hundreds!) of teachers connect and have discussions--chats--on Twitter, and that hashtags organize these conversations, that got me more invested in interacting through Twitter.

It took me a while to start sharing things myself on Twitter--I first mostly lurked and enjoyed what other people were sharing, learning from them--but once I learned that people responded with thanks to the things I tweeted and retweeted, that got me more invested in pushing my ideas through Twitter.

I think I figured out how to make Twitter work for me, as a tool for my own learning.

I am finding that different teacher-tweeters actually use Twitter in very different ways.

• Some use Twitter as a way of capturing ideas and resources.
• Some use Twitter as a way of collaborating other educational professionals.
• Some use Twitter as a way of connecting with others they would never have the opportunity to reach otherwise.
• Some use Twitter as a way of pushing back against the groupthink of current school culture, whether at a local, state, national, or international level.
• Some use Twitter as a way of promoting themselves.
• Some use Twitter as a way of sharing ideas and resources they are personally passionate about.

If I'm honest, I have used Twitter in all of these ways over the past six years.

If you are an educator not on Twitter and reading this--because it was shared with you via email or Facebook or printed out and left on the staffroom table--I encourage you to just dip your toe in the water at least.

Join Twitter, and approach it with a growth mindset. Find a colleague who is on Twitter and learn from her/him. Follow a few interesting educators. Eavesdrop on a chat (follow the hashtag), and don't be afraid to get in there with a tweet or two of your own.

You never know who you might be able to learn from, and what you might be able to learn!

This Is How Twitter Works

I recently came across a website (shared via Twitter) entitled "Mom This is How Twitter Works."

A screenshot of "Mom This is How Twitter Works."
(I confess, the lack of a comma there is killing me just a little bit...)

No disrespect to moms is intended; the author, @jessicahische, wants us to know: "This site was not made to be an anti-feminist statement about moms. Jessica was trying to pull her mom away from Facebook (which she wasn’t using much at the time) and toward Twitter."

If you are new to Twitter and are trying to find your way, this site might help explain things. Not all social networks are created equal, and just because you might be familiar with Facebook doesn't mean you'll automatically understand Twitter.

And actually, even if you've been on Twitter for a while but never really thought about how it works, this site might be helpful for clarifying things.

I think I have seen this site before--the site was created in 2010--but when is showed up in my Twitterfeed recently, it struck me as important, because I've been participating in #nt2t somewhat regularly lately.

#nt2t is "New Teachers to Twitter," a chat to help introduce the ins-and-outs of this medium for teachers interested in using it for their personalized professional development. Many, many teachers use Twitter to connect and develop their personal learning network (PLN), but learning any new technology can be daunting. Interesting then, I think, to learn about a tech tool by actually using it. And that's the idea for #nt2t. We meet up on Saturday mornings at 9:00 Eastern time (figure out where this lands you in your local time zone...) to talk about how we use Twitter. 

It's not all newbies, of course. There are great people there who have been using Twitter for their personal PD for years who can help you get acclimated. I welcome you to join in, or even just lurk along if you'd like to learn more.

If you're an educator interested in getting started with Twitter for personalized professional development, here are a few more things I've written about it that you may find helpful:

• Using Social Networks as a Learning Tool
• 10 Ways to Use Social Networks as a Teaching Tool
• Should Everyone Tweet?
• Twitter as a Key Part of Your PLN

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 12

The December 2013 issue of Christian Educators Journal.

I have several issues of Christian Educators Journal in my desk drawer. (It's a pretty good journal for Christian teachers...if you're interested, you can read earlier issues here.)

I kept this particular issue, because it has an article by yours truly included. Check it out...

Top 10 Posts of 2014

The turn of the calendar to a new year is always a time of reflection for me. Thinking back over the past year--the events, the challenges, the joys, the learning--is helpful and beneficial for me as I start to make goals and plans for the next lap around the sun.

Those who regularly read this blog know that I use this space to work out my thinking in writing. It's a space for reflection, for thinking and rethinking. I've learned to blog "for me," but I do usually push the things I write here on social media with the hope that it might be valuable food for thought for others, and to get some interaction about my ideas--both affirmation and push-back.

So it's interesting for me to see the posts that resonated with others from the past year! Here they are, the top 10 posts (by number of viewers) from 2014:

Using Social Networks as a Learning Tool

I love Twitter. If I had to pick one tool as the linchpin of my PLE, it would have to be Twitter. It's such a great way to learn about topics you find personally or professionally interesting--as long as you can find a hashtag to follow. It's also a great way to connect with other educators who share your interests. I--like many thousands of other educators--use Twitter for my own learning. But how can social networks be used as a teaching tool? Twitter seems ideal for informal, self-directed learning. But how well does it work as a formal, teacher-directed learning tool?

 Since I love learning via Twitter, I put this question to my PLN:

Hey PLN, do you have specific examples of how you’ve used Twitter (or other social networks) for your students’ learning?Thanks in advance! — Dave Mulder (@d_mulder) July 17, 2014

I also tweeted the request specifically to some thought leaders in EdTech and innovative education whom I thought might have some ideas and resources for me, including Scott McLeod, Kevin Honeycutt, George Couros, Wesley Fryer, Alice Keeler, Rick Wormeli, and Eric Sheninger. Some of these wonderful people had specific examples off the top of their heads and shared links. Others referred me to colleagues on Twitter who had stories they could share. Most retweeted my request to their own huge followings. What happened next was fantastic.

Managing Your Digital Footprint

I've been thinking lately about digital footprints, and I'm thinking about how to manage mine. (You could safely say that the class I'm taking on social network learning has been productive as food for thought.)

The Internet has a long, long memory. The things you say and do online are virtually impossible to eradicate. This may be a case where the best defense is a strong offense. How can you create a positive digital footprint?

Sometimes, the wisest course of action is to walk away from the keyboard.
Image by Steve Ransom [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]

As an assignment for class, we were asked to research strategies for maintaining a positive digital footprint, and then share our findings with the class. I decided to create a PowToon to illustrate:

What do you think? Are there other strategies you would propose?

All of Us are Smarter than Any of Us

I'm taking two courses for my doctoral work this summer, and both are about online teaching and learning. One of them is titled "Social Network Learning," which makes it sound like it's all about Twitter and Facebook. To be fair, it is about Twitter and Facebook, but it's more about social presence in online learning, and making connections with other people as resources for learning.

I'm just beginning week two of the course, and as an assignment we were asked to find an image that represents our beginning conception of a personal learning environment (PLE.) After selecting an image, we had to write a brief explanation of our thinking about the image, and how it connects to our current thinking about PLE's.

Here is the picture I selected, and my reflection about it: