Welcome back!
Over the course of this class so far, I have realized that I absolutely love Twitter. I have used Twitter in the past, but I never truly understood it. I think that is partially because I have never used it in a professional setting before, and I only compared it to my other personal social media. My personal social media accounts are more so filled with my friend’s vacation photos (it’s almost like a popularity contest) rather than thought-provoking content. I have involved myself much more in the news, politics, and such and Twitter displays a lot more of this content than my Facebook or Instagram accounts which I really enjoy. It is almost as if Twitter is the most mature form of social media because it can truly be used in a professional sense!
I think that Twitter is an amazing tool for educators. I am not so sure of my feelings towards Twitter in the classroom setting as I need to explore that more in depth, but it is an amazing tool to connect with others. By connecting with other educators on Twitter, you are able to learn about other philosophies, lessons, resources, crafts, tools, etc. If you are struggling with anything, there is an entire teacher community who is willing to support you and give you advice. It really allows teachers to continue growing and learning from others.
That being said, Twitter is still Social Media and it is still important to be careful when using it. It is important to be aware of what you post and interact with, but it is also incredibly important to not compare yourself to others. Like any other socials, it can be draining and exhausting, so it is important to manage your time on Twitter in a manner that works for you.
Last Wednesday, my EDTC 300 class and I were able to participate in a special edition of the Sask Ed Chat on Twitter! For those of you who are not familiar, Sask Ed Chat happens once a week on Twitter, and a moderator will post questions for educators to respond to. It is a great chance to connect with others in the field of education and grow your PLN!
I am really excited to continue to grow my LPN on Twitter. I have already connected with so many people and learned so much.
To keep up with all of the questions and responses, I used TweetDeck! TweetDeck allows you to open columns so that you can see multiple things at once. It saves you from having to sort through everything and constantly hitting refresh. For example, I had columns open for my home page, notifications, #saskedchat, and the moderators account. Having my notifications open allowed me to see if anyone interacted with my tweets or replied to my comments. The #saskedchat column let me see all of the tweets using that hashtag, so on Wednesday, I could see everyone’s responses to the questions! This is super important because the purpose of the chat is to communicate with others, share ideas, and learn from one another. Lastly, because I had the moderator’s account open in a column, I was able to see all his tweets– which were the questions! This made it much easier to navigate and find the questions. Having all of these columns open is definitely not for everyone. It is very overwhelming at first because there are so many things to look at and respond to.
Check out what’s going on in my Twitter!
x Paige Hamann
I really enjoyed how the Tweetdeck event went as well! I really agree with how good twitter can be in a professional setting and I also agree that we still need to be careful when bringing in Twitter into a classroom!