Twitter and My PLN
Our recent board-wide launch of our New Pedagogies for Deep
Learning (NPDL) project saw students, parents, teachers, and administrators
gather in the same space to share their vision for education. We discussed
barriers to progress and helped find ways to overcome them. We talked about the
value of community connections and the power of student voice. We struggled
with the open-ended nature of the project and the feeling of responsibility
that comes with creating new learning in our schools.
During the NPDL launch we were encouraged to share our
thinking throughout the day through Twitter. Many of us were happily ‘tweeting’
during many of the presentations and discussions. We tweeted to help us share
insights, distill out the ‘big ideas,’ and acknowledge the contributions of
other individuals around us. At about the midpoint of the day I overheard a
comment from a teacher that could have come from me six months ago. To
paraphrase, he said: ‘It’s a shame so many people are so busy Tweeting that
they’re not listening.’ His words stopped me in my tracks. I understood his
feelings completely. It was only about five months ago that I started using
Twitter as a tool for professional learning, and it is only in the last month
that I have come to appreciate its value.
Your professional learning network (we all have one)
includes anyone you are connected to that enriches your work. When my daughters
were born and I was on maternity leave, the other new mothers in the
neighborhood were part of my professional learning network for parenthood.
Friends and family who could offer advice or expertise on the telephone or by
email were also part of that network. I would also consider strangers who
shared their questions and advice on the web to be part of my network (like when you Google 'how to get my kid to eat vegetables?').
My professional learning network as a teacher has always
included my colleagues, teacher friends near and far, and occasionally those
teachers who shared their experiences and resources on the internet in a way
that was searchable (many thanks to those strangers, by the way!). New tools
like Twitter have significantly changed my ability to connect with like-minded
individuals in a meaningful way. On Twitter I ‘follow’ people who post
information that enriches my learning. Many people I follow tweet information
about current education research, the incorporation of technology in the
classroom, or ideas and philosophies that challenge my thinking. Another subset
of people I follow includes teachers in my school board that are sharing the
work they do in their classrooms.
I don’t have time to read every tweet that I have welcomed
into my account, but I have the power to organize my Twitter account in such a
way that I won’t miss the most important bits. Tweeters use hashtags to help
sift through the billions of tweets on the internet to find useful information.
During our NPDL launch we used two hashtags: ‘#NPDL’ and ‘#SCDSB.' During the
BringIT Together conference we used ‘#bit14.’ During the Science Teachers' Association of Ontario conference last week we used ‘#STAO2014.’ If you do a
search on Twitter for any of these terms you’ll find a rich collection of
thoughts, ideas, photos, resources, and links posted by the people tweeting at
these events. I can go back to these searches to find a link or idea that I
want to explore further. I can look at my own tweets to recapture my state of
mind during a keynote speech. I can see who else was tweeting if I want to
connect or reconnect with people who were at the event. I think of these
searches as collective ‘meeting minutes’ created by a giant human flock of
tweeting attendees. This type of communication is called ‘backchaneling’ (participating
in an electronic, real-time conversation during a live event) and can be a
great way to hear and record opinions of all types of people. I would have been
the last kid to put my hand up at school but I might have produced a flurry of
on-topic tweets in the background given the opportunity.
So, back to the comment made at the NPDL launch. Confronted
with someone who held the same opinions I held six months ago regarding social media I had to think
carefully about my response. Aside from a 30-minute lecture on the wonders of
Twitter, my options were limited:
“We are listening,” might sound too defensive.
“Here, let me show you how awesome this is!” might be a little too pushy for some.
My choice? “I know it looks like we’re not listening, but we are. {insert big smile} Think of it like taking notes as a group.”
Hopefully that was enough to raise some curiosity about the process. Hopefully I was able to communicate that I was listening and participating.
“We are listening,” might sound too defensive.
“Here, let me show you how awesome this is!” might be a little too pushy for some.
My choice? “I know it looks like we’re not listening, but we are. {insert big smile} Think of it like taking notes as a group.”
Hopefully that was enough to raise some curiosity about the process. Hopefully I was able to communicate that I was listening and participating.
If you’ve read this far and you’re Twitter-curious (but reluctant
to actually give it a go yourself), check out these ‘Storify’ collections of
Tweets from the three events I discussed. Each little story is only a small
subset of the tweeting that went on, but will hopefully give you a taste of
what it is we’re all doing when we hear a speaker say something wonderful only
to turn to our devices and start tapping away at a tweet.
Tweet collections from Storify (there are three here; check them out!):
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