If you’ve taught for very long at all, you’ve come to know the pain that can be professional development. Maybe there’s a bit here or there that’s useful to you, but the rest is really only applicable in a couple of instances or not at all. This week in EDTECH 543, we took a look at using Twitter to develop a personal PD network.
I had to go back to see when I originally signed up for twitter. 2008. I’ve used the service off and on since then, but it is very conversational in nature which makes it really hard to participate in regularly. After all, who likes random people jumping into their conversations? But, you can start a conversation, or respond to another’s conversation starter if you get a bit used to the idea that there might be others who respond and take the lead in totally other directions or if there are suddenly 100 splinter conversations about the exact same thing.
How I use Twitter and Hootsuite
Because I’ve been using Twitter for so long, it sometimes reads like a history of my life online. An artifact, of sorts, or a toe on my digital footprint. Luckily, I’ve always been somewhat dedicated to keeping some order to the service. I tend to organize the people I follow in some way. I use lists as a starter for that. For example, the twits that I follow because of the connection we have through Boise State University go into a Boise State list. Same goes for those I know from the University of Jamestown. The people I interact with who are writers, book reviewers, etc, end up in my Bookies list. And so on.
I also used to use Twitter for blog promotion. At the time, I needed something a little more powerful than the basic Twitter page to keep all of that in order. I fell into using Hootsuite, which was one of the original social media management services. I still use it even though I don’t necessarily need the full power it contains.
One of the nice things that Hootsuite does allow me to do still is have streams that can display multiple searches, lists, hashtags, etc. Above, and below, you’ll see the EDTECH page I have set up with some of the hashtag searches I have running on it. You’ll also see the Teaching page I have set up.
Twitter for Just-in-Time PD
These pages give me the ability to narrow down the flow of information coming onto my screen. So, if I want to check in on what’s happening in the teaching arena, I just click on the Teaching page, and I don’t get all the other noise happening. A quick scroll through the #edtech stream always nets me some sort of good article on research or other edtech related news. #academic twitter is always good for some serious academic discussions (and sometimes not so serious ones). And they always end up being a good way to catch news and trending things that are coming along.
I’m not entirely sure that I would ever really count on Twitter for PD though. Yes, there is an abundance of information available. Yes, it’s easy to quickly load a list with experts in a new area of interest. But, the flow of information is always on. You can search for something but that doesn’t stop the flow either; merely giving a small snapshot into it before it goes flying along again. In that regard, the news is likely to be the freshest. But, there is always a lot of noise. You’ve got to get good and practiced at filtering a lot of that out.
Instead, I suggest using it as a part of any sort of personal learning network. A good place to go looking for additional information and to jump into conversations about a topic. But, not really a good spot to start your primary research into something, I don’t think.
What do you think? Is Twitter a valuable tool for just-in-time professional development? Or just a good cog in the PD machine?
Shane Ede: My EDTECH Learning Log 