Every educator knows what their school is like, but few really understand what Twitter is like. The Twitter experience, like school, is different for everyone. One’s contribution to the effort in either of these endeavors has a great deal to do with producing the outcomes. Simply put, the more you put in, the more you get out. That at least is the theory.
I am fortunate to have a very large base of educators that I follow on Twitter and an even larger number of educators follow me. This affords me an ability to see a great deal of activity on Twitter in regard to how educators use it on a daily basis. I wish all educators had Professional Learning Networks like mine, but it is not a style of learning suited for everyone. Nevertheless, I began wondering what it would be like if the types of sharing, collaboration, reflection and discussion that are continuing activities on Twitter could at least be attempted in the school building environment.
A bulk of the information exchange available on Twitter for instance comes in the form of links, or URL’s, which are internet addresses to pages of information. They could be announcements, articles, posts, videos, podcasts, webcasts, personal opinions, or books. I guess in a school setting each teacher could take articles, videos and books to exchange and discuss with other faculty members. Admins could find education links run them off on paper, and insert them in teachers’ mailboxes daily. Of course personal opinions are the mainstay for faculty rooms.
Another thing that Twitter offers us is the ability to respond to ideas and have a general discussion about those responses. Often times the authors of the ideas participate in those discussions. In a school setting, I imagine that the administrator could offer ideas for discussion, or bring in speakers and lecturers for the faculty. This is usually done at the beginning of the year to get everyone pumped up for the New Year. It would need to be done more frequently however in order to emulate the Twitter experience.
Reflection is very big on Twitter. Many tweets cause people to discuss and reflect. After a short period of time some educators address those same issues on blog posts. That of course is shared, commented on, reflected upon, and the process repeats itself. I guess in the school setting the Admin could propose a topic for discussion and afterward people could respond and reflect and if they chose to do so, come back with articles they had written on the subject to present to the faculty or place a copy in everyone’s mailbox.
Twitter offers a great deal of variety in opinion. An obviously unique element to this is the fact that Twitter is a global effort. Educators from around the world offer their opinions on some of the many subjects that educators have in common around the world. As an example, I am amazed at how universally standardized tests are recognized by educators to be counterproductive in educating kids. In the school setting it would be difficult to get a global perspective on issues unless the guest speakers were flown in from other countries. Skyping might be a great alternative.
A big, big Twitter plus is the access educators have to education experts. Conversations are had between regular teachers and education luminaries on a daily basis. Many of education’s leaders actively participate on Twitter in order to stay on the pulse of education, as well as education reform. Many of the people forming the national and international education discussions are gathering and sharing information over the internet using Twitter. In a school setting Admins could probably make calls to these same education leaders and set up at the very least Skype calls. The faculty could be assembled in the auditorium for the Skype call. The discussion after would be great.
Twitter is a gateway to many free online webinars and online conferences. It also keeps educators posted on local and regional Edcamps and conferences. Edcamps are a product of social media and a great form of Professional Development for educators. In a school setting the Admin could post a daily, weekly, or monthly calendar of events for professional development. The mailboxes again would be a wonderful method of delivery for this.
On Twitter there are constant discussions and references to pedagogy and methodology in education. As one example Twitter has been discussing the Flipped Classroom for almost two years at this point. I imagine that admins should be the education leaders of their schools and be up to date on all things education. Once they get any new trends they could present the idea at a faculty meeting. Hopefully, the discussions of pedagogy and methodology will spill over into department meetings and faculty room gatherings.
I know that schools are doing the best that they can, given the restraints of time and money, to involve their teachers with as much as they can, but it is not enough in a world where new information is formed by the ton in a matter of minutes. The idea of using technology as a tool for professional development has not caught on. The idea of being a “Connected Educator” is too foreign to too many educators. If this post is to be effective it will have to be printed out, reproduced, and circulated in teachers’ mailboxes in order to reach them. In this age of technology, that should be an embarrassment to the most educated people this country or any country has to offer.
Twitter is only one source for teachers to connect. It is the easiest to use, and the hardest to understand. Teachers need to get started connecting to other teachers. If Twitter is too difficult, try Google +, or LinkedIn, or start a blog that accepts comments. If what we are now doing as teachers was keeping us relevant and effective as educators , the words “Education” and “Reform” would not be linked together so often in so much written about education today. We have a need to connect with other educators. It must be an imperative! In the words of Ben Franklin, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
My Island View 
Reblogged this on teachingforchange and commented:
It’s up to the next generation of educators to bring the technology we use everyday into the classroom by sharing best practices and ideas with each other. We also must remember education is not an individual effort but a collaborative effort that requires all teachers to work together for our students.
I really love what you say here about Twitter being the “easiest [tool] to use, and the hardest to understand.” I’ve been on Twitter since the beginning (@Jessifer), but I’ve only really “figured it out” in the last year. I didn’t really get it until I found myself at the center of a thriving Twitter discussion, where different participators were moving rapidly in and out of the discussion. It was chaotic but beautiful. Storify (and its ilk) is helping me to even better understand how I can think about and use Twitter. Just co-wrote an article about Storify that talks about how it can harness Twitter (and how it sometimes harnesses Twitter too much): http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/How_to_Storify.html.
Great post! Twitter can be an intimidating place for teachers (anyone really) because there is no natural jump off point. I think your point on using or bringing the beat features of the Twitter experience to your school(s) is a good one. In addition I think twitter savvy colleagues should/could help their peers learn about twitter and it’s benefits. They could do so in a non-threatening step by step process. This is an area too where school leaders can model the benefits and usefulness for their staffs. Good read!
[…] After a short period of time some educators address those same issues on blog posts. That of course is shared, commented on, reflected upon, and the process repeats itself. I guess in the school setting the Admin could propose a topic for discussion and afterward people could respond and reflect and if they chose to do so, come back with articles they had written on the subject to present to the faculty or place a copy in everyone’s mailbox. What If School Was More Like Twitter? « My Island View […]
Excellent post! We need to incorporate the 21st century collaborative skills as leading learners. We need to set the example for students and adults on how best to utilize twitter and social media for learning. Personalization, collaboration, interconnection for professional development, twitter has been a huge resource for educators.
Great insight, Tom. Twitter is intimidating, as Joe pointed out, especially at first. Educators get put off by seeing thousands of followers when they struggle to get a dozen or two. At the same time, Twitter gives a chance to build those connections if you connect and re-connect, and that leads to a valuable discussion opportunity–one that didn’t exist just a few years ago. It begs the question, what’s next?!
This is a great post. Twitter has become one of the most valuable pieces of my PLN. Whenever I drop in, I seem to find another educator or thinker that is pondering the same questions I am. Sharing and making learning visible – that is what it is all about! 🙂
Great post as always Tom!
“The idea of using technology as a tool for professional development has not caught on. The idea of being a “Connected Educator” is too foreign to too many educators. If this post is to be effective it will have to be printed out, reproduced, and circulated in teachers’ mailboxes in order to reach them. In this age of technology, that should be an embarrassment to the most educated people this country or any country has to offer.”
A school without mailboxes, imagine!
How can we get more people to understand that collaborating with a PLN can save energy, time, resources and make us all collectively smarter at the same time? As educators we can be spread all over the world geographically, but still focus on the mission of transforming teaching and learning by working together to share, reflect and support each other. I’ll continue tomorrow to spread the message, how about you?
Keep reflecting we have a lot of work to do!
Thanks Tom!
Meg
Tom,
I refuse to print out articles. I posted yesterday, “When you know you are doing best practice, tell people about it and sooner or later they will follow, support them when they do”. I had one of those moments this morning when someone came into my office, excited to use twitter. I stopped what I was doing, went into my office, showed them my page and shared their information with my followers. I hope that she see the value that I and others know is there. Great post. I hope that you continue to share the best practice of connected learning.
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Tom,
Again you have hit the nail on the head with respect to the fact that Twitter while so easy is something that people seem to find the most intimidating. I have tried with several individuals to liken it to a stream of consciousness that one enters and leaves at will. Where you can select from a variety of materials as they pass by. At times it can feel like you are trying to drink from a fire hose and can be overwhelming until you get to the part where you realize that it is there when and how you want to take advantage of it.
I am working on a proposal for my boss to get someone in perhaps via skype to speak to staff in general about the way that Twitter can facilitate their professional development – even more important I hope that I can find someone to speak to staff about the creation of PLN’s and how they can be of great benefit to the life long learning of a teacher – or anyone for that matter.
Thanks as always for more food for thought on this topic.
Dan
And if there is any truth to this statement:
“…teachers spend only about 3 percent of their teaching day collaborating with colleagues. The majority of American teachers plan, teach, and examine their practice alone.”
(“Alone in the Classroom: Why Teachers Are Too Isolated” http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/alone-in-the-classroom-why-teachers-are-too-isolated/255976/ )
… then things really need to change.
It was certainly true when I was teaching a couple of years ago. It was only after I retired that I had time to evaluate the teaching styles I used and how I was able to be an effective teacher. I was too busy doing it when in the classroom to talk about how I was doing it.
>>If this post is to be effective it will have to be printed out, reproduced, and circulated in teachers’ mailboxes in order to reach them. <<
Lord help us, but this is probably true. And why is that? Why aren't teachers using the power of technology to use LESS paper, not more?
[…] Ben Wieder assures us that professors with personal tweets get high credibility marks and Tom Whitby muses on, What if school was more like Twitter? […]
Excellent post Tom…we’re a small school but very progressive with our use of technology in the classroom. I try to stay up with ed trends, I’ve done faculty sessions on things like social media, google docs and flipping the classroom…I have been preaching the power of Twitter since the beginning, some get it but honestly many don’t…yes, we as admins could arrange a group skype with “leaders” and yes the discussion following could be great but we can only talk about it so much, it is only useful when teachers take action and get involved. We need a digital equivalent to how dad tossed you into the pool when you were a kid so you’d learn to swim, something to truly encourage teachers to go for a swim in the Twitter pool while we stand by and make sure they don’t drown before they get the hang of it…if you come up with something, let me know and I’ll do likewise!
Darryl
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Tom, I see you post as a comparison, comparing schools to Twitter, more than more about Twitter per se. You’re asking that students, as well as teachers, indulge in the benefits of sharing knowledge, provide easy access to online resources of value, engage in conversations, collaborate, and see the benefits of being a community of learners. Teachers and students don’t need to use Twitter. They need to, however, participate in sharing, online and in other ways. We need to sanction the power of sharing as knowledge making. We need to be willing to be creators of knowledge, sharing it any way we can, to keep others informed and engaged in an ongoing conversation. For many, this agenda needs to be pushed regardless of whether they use or understand Twitter. They need to understand the power of sharing in all forms. In essence, I see you talking about social constructivist learning techniques, which Twitter exemplifies, but again, we want this kind of sharing, scaffolding, learning to happen in schools regardless of the tools used. Yes, some online tools will help, such as students blogging with students in other schools, but one need not be a Twitter user or blogger to come upon the value of sharing. Even Facebook’s interface helps students to understand the power of sharing. Thanks for the analogy (or simile or metaphor) of using Twitter to explain your points.
Ultimately, we need to use the methods for sharing and growing that are most effective for us. Aside from some of the tech resources mentioned in addition to Twitter such as Google+ (which fewer teachers use and understand than Twitter) and Linkedin (which many educators don’t get or don’t want to use), what other resources do you recommend for sharing for professional development and lifelong learning?
[…] Every educator knows what their school is like, but few really understand what Twitter is like. The Twitter experience, like school, is different for everyone. One’s contribution to the effort in… […]
[…] Every educator knows what their school is like, but few really understand what Twitter is like. The Twitter experience, like school, is different for everyone. One’s contribution to the effort in… […]
[…] Every educator knows what their school is like, but few really understand what Twitter is like. The Twitter experience, like school, is different for everyone. One’s contribution to the effort in… […]