Building a Professional Learning Network
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| Image source - Twitter.com |
About a month ago, I set out to develop a professional learning network (or PLN) via Twitter. I have long had a personal Twitter account, but that is mostly about following sports, news and my hobbies. So I started a brand new professional Twitter handle with the same name as this blog: @DomsEdTech.
Who To Follow?
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| Image source - PostPlanner.com |
Twitter is a social network, so just making an account is sort of like just walking around your block talking and hoping the right person will engage you in a conversation. I needed to find the right accounts to follow in order to develop those professional learning resources I was after. I began by identifying 15 accounts -- some were people, some publications and some professional organizations -- to follow. I monitored these accounts for "news I could use" and retweeted out particularly poignant links. It wasn't all perfect on the first try; I quickly noticed one of the accounts cluttered up my feed with links to every blog article it had posted in the last few years pretty much non-stop. But as I removed, added and monitored accounts I began to develop a place where a lot of the information coming through was useful to me professionally.
#EdChat
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| Screenshot of my first Twitter chat. Image Source - Personal Photo |
Thus far Twitter had been a rather passive experience, but that was about to change by joining in to a Twitter chat. Based on the recommendations of my professor and many Twitter posts I used TweetDeck as a way to organize my Twitter experience. Once the #EdChat began, information was coming in quickly on a lot of topics. It was definitely a "drinking from the firehose" kind of moment. Once I got the flow of it and was able to identify topics of particular interest to my practice, I had a wonderful couple of exchanges that gave me some great takeaways. The screenshot to the left displays one of them. I was connected to a great YouTube resource on motions for teaching phonemic awareness. The videos are from Heggerty Phonemic Awareness and were brought to my attention by Twitter user @carothers_tara. You'll notice I forgot to add the hashtag (#EdChat) to my first reply there, I did better after that.
My Take
Overall, I've connected to a lot of great resources in the relatively short time I've been using Twitter to develop a PLN. I like that the material comes in short bursts due to the medium itself and that I can explore linked articles or resources that interest me and my practice. I also enjoy the ease of customizing my experience by selecting who I follow (or continue to follow). Participating in the Twitter chat was a bit overwhelming; even though I learned quite a bit from it I didn't love that I didn't have a great resource to share back with the group on the topic that came up. I will say that no one else seemed to mind. I have used the metaphor "down the rabbit hole" on this blog before, and educational Twitter may be the best example yet. It was definitely easy to find something to add to my professional educator's toolbox; it was equally easy to spend far too long clicking through links to more and more articles while losing track of time, and it was not particularly easy to find a specific resource on a specific topic. If you are like me in this regard, I advise setting a timer to limit the time spent reading, especially if you are after a specific resource. Learning is excellent but deadlines, spouses, chores and the like are all real things that don't wait for unlimited discovery online.
Where To Find Educational Twitter Chats
If you are interested in experiencing the fast-paced professional learning found in #EdChat or any one of hundreds of other Twitter chats, I recommend using this list. There are many others out there, but I personally found this one the easiest to use.
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