PLN's on Twitter...Something to Tweet About!

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So, I am not a really big Twitter person.  I have had an account for years and never really utilized it for anything but the occasional view of the few feeds that I began following the day I set it up, but then I took Integrating Technology in Curriculum and then I was really forced to take a second look at it.  I am glad I did.

What is the big deal?

I would like to have a large digital presence.  I believe that it is important being a school library to model digital behavior and collaboration for my students.  To show them the power of the digital age and encourage them to partake in all the opportunity that it affords; however, it is REALLY time consuming.  I suppose that you could just monitor twitter and read what you want and ignore the greater community, but I am a firm believer that you get out of things like this what you put into them.  That being said, if you are going to take from twitter, you are probably not going to get the most out of it.  Which brings me to PLN’s. 

PLN's through Twitter

PLN’s are definitely the most interesting part of twitter.  While you can find PLN’s just about anywhere, from the group that you completed your coursework with in grad school to the teachers that sit together during their lunch, twitter has the capability to connect professionals in the same field from all over the country within the parameters of their interests and that is pretty great!  When exploring options for chatting, I found #iolchat and got the chance to share ideas with them on distance learning and technology.  They were wonderfully friendly, asked me point blank my opinions on the topic of trends with students using tech and their approaches and we had a nice hour-long conversation.  They knew each other pretty well and it was obvious that they have gone to each other when they had questions or issues or needed professional support. At first it can be intimidating jumping in there and joining in, and the conversations can go pretty fast, but after a few minutes you really do get the hang of it.  By the end of the hour we were surprised, just like colleagues may be when their lunch hour is up after an engaging conversation, that it was time to say goodbye till next week.  Fun.

There is still the content!

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All of this is not to downplay the benefits of the content that gets placed on twitter and the retweets that are shared by those following.  One of the larger groups I am following, Edutopia, is really informative.  I am sure that most educators on twitter are following this website/twitter account and I have found some value in just about everything that they put out there.  This article (Comprehensive List of Digital Resources: http://edut.to/TdN4aQ .), was particularly great.  When they say comprehensive, they are not kidding.  There were tons of links on this broken down by category and some I had heard of, but many I had not.  Pretty valuable if you are just learning technology and how to integrate it into curriculum.  

By the way....you can follow me at @DawnMScuderi