When I first
heard that many educators often used Twitter, I did not believe the claim. “Teachers
spending large amounts of time on Twitter? That has to be unheard of!” None of
my former teachers ever used Twitter, and with this fact came my perceptions,
accurate as they may be at times, about Twitter and the activities on it. These
thoughts came from the idea that Twitter was only used to complain about
politics or watch what celebrities were up to lately. I never really considered
the other ways it could be used, but through the last couple weeks I have had
my eyes opened a little bit to the ideas, opinions, and advice that circulates
this social media for man different educators.
To begin with, there are a whole
host of teachers who share their techniques and ideas on Twitter for everyone
to look at. I began my “teacher Twitter” career by following a number of other
educators in various fields. As I perused through the information that was
shared either through basic posts or retweets of articles, I was met with a wealth
of knowledge that I really did not expect to receive on a site such as Twitter.
I found advice for classroom work and experiences. There were certain posts
that blew me away with the insight I found there. The advice that was given by
certain people had me copying them down so that I could keep that in mind as
well. I appreciated seeing people that I agreed with on teaching philosophy as
well as those that made me consider the differences. Witnessing pieces of experience
from current educators was a greatly beneficial piece to my experience.
Along with that there were many
pages that I followed which focused on different parts of education, ranging
from technology in education, to views on teaching, to just general educational
conferences that were occurring. I was able to see different areas of education
in an advertising, yet informative, manner. I appreciated the information that
was given to me from these pages and also the connection they had to what I had
been learning about in Tech Ed class this semester.
One last key piece to my experience
on Twitter was the connection that these educators had to each other. There was
a network of educators that all followed each other and, whether it was the
reality in real life or not, had a personal connection and knew who each other
was online. While there are arguments to be had on the depths of these “relationships”,
for their purpose of sharing educational advice and techniques Twitter served
very well.
Overall, my experience on Twitter
thus far has exceeded what I expected coming in. I have found different pages
that I can look at for techniques or technology that I may want to pay
attention to for my classrooms in the future. Along with that, I have been able
to see advice on teaching come from both current educators and my peers, the
next generation of teachers. All in all, it has been a beneficial experience
for me.
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