How does the old saying go? A Tweet in the hand is worth two in the stream? I recently read the article "Join the Flock" by Hadley Ferguson where she discusses the immense value of establishing a PLN, or Personal Learning Network. Twitter, a social network and microblog, contains endless streams of information posted by people worldwide. But how do we become integrated into this community and streamline this continuous flow of information? Ferguson offers simple steps to gradually become one of the "Tweeple" that share ideas, links and knowledge. After creating a Twitter account, find people or groups to follow and start listening. Feel free to follow links and read articles, but the goal is to begin sharing this knowledge with others by Retweeting and tagging posts with Hashtags (#). Gradually, you will develop a voice in the community by adding comments, sharing your own research and contributing to this stream of learning.
How will Twitter and a PLN help me develop skills as a teacher?
Teaching is just a type of collaboration. Teachers research and devise methods to share the information they learn with others. As teachers, however, we must constantly seek out and learn methods to improve our skills. Twitter allows us to collaborate with others almost like the world's largest Think tank. No longer are we subjected to hours of researching and navigating information from scratch. The Twitter community gives us instant access to relevant information, which comes to us rather than seeking it on our own. Less time is spent fishing for ideas, while more time can be spent integrating ideas and methods into our classroom.
Why Twitter?
Twitter is unique in that it limits the writer to 140 characters. This makes tweets, or posts, extremely efficient. Links, questions, comments, etc. get directly to the point. Having this limitation allows quick searches and easy navigating.
Ferguson, H. (2011, June/July). Join the flock. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&pm=2&fs=1#pg14
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