My two favorite tools for engaging and connecting with others are Twitter and Blogging, which will be the main focus of a training session I will be sharing next week. With Twitter I have connected with educators as far away as Saudi Arabia, India, and Australia. In my "Life Before Twitter" these kinds of connections would have been impossible. This is quite a contrast from my first classroom where I did not have a phone. The only connection to the world beyond those four walls was the intercom system, which sometimes worked and sometimes did not. Now, with Twitter, I can message other people who share my interests no matter where they are. And Twitter has also enabled me to connect with leaders in education that I would not have been able to network with in the past.
Blogging has served to accentuate the connections in my professional learning network in many ways. First of all, after reading my blog posts, others have freely shared their own ideas, thoughts, and comments with me. This makes posting to a blog a two-way or many-way conversation, with others giving me feedback and ideas. Secondly, with blogging, I have found myself engaged in our international conversation regarding education reform and educational issues of the day. It is through these exchanges that my own passion for public education is kept alive.
There is a global conversation occurring about education and we only need to engage a few tools like Twitter and blogging in order to be a part of it.
Here's my Prezi for the presentation next week.
Great post! I am thinking along the same lines of really getting teachers and administrators on board with Twitter to start. Please keep updating us on how the journey goes this year with your staff. Love the Prezi too...some very good tips to share with others...thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'll do that. I want to keep it simple to begin with. I think there is effort in getting a PLN to develop with the tools, and providing users with too many just confuses.
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