Twitter

EduTweeting

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Have you heard of Twitter??? I know it's 2019 and practically everyone is on the "the Twitter", but I had been reluctant to join until recently.  One of my reservations about jumping into Twitter, as you may remember from a previous post of mine, was creating another digital footprint on social media.  But I found that like any other social media site, you can post as much or as little as you would like.  However, there are a ton of educational people and groups that you can follow and provide insight on important topics in education.  So I decided to give Twitter a try for a few weeks and here are a couple of my revelations.

1. Information Galore

The amount of resources available on Twitter can be overwhelming, but it wasn't difficult for me to find groups and other individuals to follow.  There are some pretty awesome educational groups posting some pretty awesome stuff- like articles, links, or other resources.  Some of the groups and individuals I chose to follow focused specifically on education (MindShift, EduMatch, ASCD, Project Zero, PBL Works, ISTE, GlobalSTEMClassroom, AECT, edutopia, Paul Solarz), but I also follow groups that focus on topics related to content I teach- most specifically science and engineering (DiscoverE, NASA, AsapSCIENCE, Bill Nye, Popular Science).   

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A resource I found that I am particularly excited to use is the Hour of Code Tutorials from IL Digital Educators Alliance.  Being a STREAM teacher, I am looking forward to implementing some of these resources with my students.  This is my first year focusing participating in Computer Science Education Week, and I was so excited to find resources to use with my students.  Nicole M Zumpano also put together a super user-friendly guide to the Hour of Code, which provides resources for students as young as first grade.  I was rather surprised to find this kind of ready to use information on Twitter, and the great thing was being able to share these resources with others and also keeping them for future reference by retweeting the information.  

2.  Immediate PLN

Did you know there are regular Educational Chat taking place on Twitter?  Honestly, I had no idea until recently.  In my mind, Twitter was a platform for following the latest entertainment news/drama, but it really can be used as a Professional Learning Network.  Using #EduChat, I was able to find a plethora of scheduled conversations focusing on educational topics.  To help me figure out when these chats were taking place, I looked at the Official Education Chat List on Twitter.  This was really helpful when figuring out what was available and when.  When I finally took the plunge and participated in an EduChat, I participated in an Empowering Learners Chat hosted by Paul Solarz.  I was pretty pumped because I am a huge fan of  "Teach Like a Pirate".  

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At first, I was a little overwhelmed in keeping up with the responses.  My lifesaver was using TweetDeck during my chat.  It organized all the responses within the chat so I could see the responses of the other people participating in the chat without having to sift through other tweets.  I also thought using my computer was easier than using my phone.  Maybe when I become a little more Twitter savvy I can participate in my EduChats on my phone.  

Media Source: Twitter

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed participating in an EduChat.  It was interesting to see how others in the education field responded to the same questions I had answered, and I got really excited when others responded or liked my responses. 

Media Source: Twitter

So if you are wondering if I would recommend other educational professionals join Twitter, the answer is a resounding... YES!  Like other social media, you can be as involved as you want to be.  Tweet, Retweet, scroll your feed, it is completely up to you how much of a digital footprint you leave.  Give it try, you might like it!