When I read “In Defense of Twitter” I thought “geesh did I write that? Recently a Facebook friend commented, “I gave up the Twitter thing. I'm not interesting enough to twitter AND fb.....” So I too have had to explain and defend Twitter to non-professionals and teacher-educators since I first started using the SM tool over 3 years ago. In Spring 2009 I gave 11 presentations in the UAE about using Twitter with students as a suggestion from my own students after I created a project introducing them to using Twitter as a new way to learn. I do see Twitter as a very useful learning tool; others see it as a way to self-promote themselves, their product, or their trade.
At first use I wondered why people were using Twitter; why would I want to use a ‘gossip’ tool or find out when people are “....having coffee at Starbucks in Santa Monica?” Then I figured Twitter out and began using it as a learning tool for my own professional development. How can teachers afford travel and going to conferences to learn, bearing time away from the classroom and the expense, when we can use Twitter for the times we can’t?
Learning to use Twitter for my own professional development has changed the way I work and learn. And as I repeat and I tell others “Facebook is for people you already know, Twitter is for people you want to know.” Aren’t there learning professionals, writers, nerdy techies, or others you would love to have dinner with and talk about something you love? Well that’s what Twitter is like to me. When I read a person’s tweet stream it’s like having a dinner conversation with them without having to leave my home. I can pick their brain and ask questions - WOW – and they reply with a RT (retweet), mention, or a direct message! When I got my first direct message I was shocked, but when I got a my first direct message from Howard Rheingold -@hrheingold -a guru in teaching & learning and author of Smart Mobs I was ECSTATIC- Howard Rheingold talking to me personally? And I’ve made some new friends to have dinner with like @dajbelshaw and @Black_Tomato. I am still in awe of the possibilities of what you can learn from others in Twitter. Every day with Twitter is a new learning adventure; you never quite know where you are going to go....
Thus far I have created a very small list (compared other Twitter users thousands) of professionals I follow. I am a passionate educator- passionate about using technology to enhance learning, and a passionate traveler. Blending my 3 favorite things- teaching, technology, and travel- I created lists of people to follow and to learn from. It’s really simple technology, seriously.
This summer I am doing a little experiment with social media tools. As an avid user and promoter of many new media tools including LinkedIn but never having been a real fan of Facebook I am blending my Twitter professional followers into a personal Facebook account (while managing my personal data privacy). Being passionate about teaching and learning is something my Facebook friends know about me personally, so why not spread a little learning onto them? Hopefully we will all learn a lot from my little experiment! I know I am learning a lot more about them.
Twitter never has let me down, every time I read a tweet from someone I follow I learn something new and it’s a great feeling to learn something new.
...Follow me @maranca
No comments:
Post a Comment