Ive been through Cyberspace with a Blogpost with No Name..it felt good to be out of the rain…

I normally have something written in the ‘title’ space above before I start a post. This time I must confess I do not. It’s not because what I have to share is not important in my opinion. It is not because I do not know what this post is going to be about. Every once in a while, you come across ideas, people, suggestions that challenge your beliefs. This is a good thing. Often a difficult thing to deal with especially when it contradicts the beliefs of your world and comfort zone. Today was an experience for me in our lunch Twitter session at school. We had a healthy turnout, of varying ‘twittergeek’ experiences and interests. So I go into the session thinking – 100 million people on Twitter- what more can I say to promote this valuable information sharing tool? How could this many people be wrong? (Notice I’m NOT saying social media tool). However there were some great ideas, many challenges and discussion as to the WHY? Why do I need to use Twitter? What benefit is Twitter to me? To my learners? I don’t have TIME – a teacher most valuable resource. It was great because through this act of inquiry, it forced me to reflect on why I use it as an educator, and confirmed my own beliefs. Why I think it is important.

I use Twitter to:
Connect
Collaborate
Share
Challenge

Twitter saves me TIME. How? It saves me time finding resources other educators have used, saves me time searching on the internet, saves me time asking the same question over again (that many of educator have already asked). Wow.. I could go on. Is it worth the 140 characters and 30 seconds to tweet and get haves heaps of valuable info pushed to me, as opposed to me ‘Googling’ it? You bet! What other ways besides education are we using Twitter for? Real examples; the SF Fire Department, LA County Roads department, numerous airlines are using twitter to alert people in real time of happenings and events. Twitter does something that no other information system can do- give information now. In 50 seconds, that tweet I just sent- obsolete.

Do you think up to date information and collaboration is important to your learners? If so then we as educators need to be where the learners already are.

Making connections and collaborating.

On Twitter.