I made my first Twitter account at seventeen and I barely got anything out of it and rarely used it. I always associated it with American politics and just a lot of people posting nonsense, so I wasn’t a big fan. I’ve had it for a week now as a professional tool and I am definitely seeing the benefits. I love seeing what other people have found and it’s so great when people comment on my post of a link I found. Hearing that people are also interested or find useful a link you found just instantly makes a connection between you two. Usually, the articles or videos are not that long or maybe it’s even just a picture. Although it’s for a class it doesn’t even feel like homework since the amount of information you are reading and the resources you get are broken up into small bite sizes. My first tweet was a little scary as I was thinking “What if nobody responds? What if I sound dumb?”. What I was reminded of within the hour is that people on social media and specifically the EDTC 300 class are very supportive and you are never alone on the internet (in a good way). Since education is something that is loved by many, there are tons of people who are also passionate about teaching and are interested in the articles and links that I like! I was reminded of how many passionate and amazing educators there are when our instructor for this class showed us Tweedeck.
I experienced Tweedeck for the first time on May 13th during a Saskedchat, and it was great! I honestly had no idea what to expect at first but when our instructor Katia explained it, it was quite easy. She told us that when developing our Professional Networks and when using large chats like these, to not put the pressure on yourself to read every single thing, which I am so glad because I would have overwhelmed myself trying to read every tweet. It was an awesome experience that allowed me to very simply connect with other educators within my province and even others from far away. I think this would be a great thing to do throughout the year with fellow educators at your school to get to know one another better and build community.
Overall, my first week on Twitter was an eye-opening and positive experience. I’m excited to explore it more.