Twitter as a Professional Learning Network

When I first created my Twitter account back in high school, I was just searching for alternative to Facebook to keep myself entertained. I had no clue it could be a powerful tool for my future career. If anything, I was afraid it was going to be a detriment to my job search so I did my best to keep all of the posts clean and appropriate (for a high school student). Now, I use Twitter solely for professional reading.

Pros

Twitter can be very useful to educators trying to broaden their teaching horizons. Twitter can be used t0 easily share created resources, links to interesting education articles, and photos of activities in-action. The fact the Twitter limits a tweet to 280 characters (it used be 140 characters but Twitter increased that number recently) helps the reader quickly decide if they are interested in learning more. It does not feel like a chore because it is not required. Instead, one can read only the materials that interest them. Of course, one of the powerful tools within Twitter is the hashtag. Users can link their tweet to other similar tweets by using a hashtag. For example, I usually read #MTBoS which stands for Math Twitter Blog-o-Sphere. This hashtag was very useful when I first started teaching because I would find blogs run by math teachers. One in particular, Math=Love, became my lifeline. She shared ready-to-print activities to help me enhance my Algebra I course. By looking at just one hashtag, I could see all of the tweets by math teachers who were interested or involved in Twitter and/or blogging. Users can follow a hashtag on a specific topic to see what people are saying about it. The next pro of Twitter goes along with the hashtags because it relies on a hashtag to function. Twitter educators hold educational twitter chats at scheduled times. This way, the educators interested in the chat can follow or participate at the same time. They do not have to wait days to see a response or something new added to the conversation. Instead, the users involved are actively responding to tweets within that one-hour time period. To link all of the Tweets of course, users all use the same hashtag (Inservice Guest Blogger, 2017). Later this week I hope to participate in a general education chat that uses #edchat to link the tweets. Finally, Twitter can be used by students in the classroom. It is a public tool that students can use to share their own ideas and appropriately collaborate with peers both within the classroom and around the world.

Cons

While Twitter makes it easy for educators to quickly share ideas, one must be careful about the content they are sharing online. Teachers must be especially careful because we all know our students are little detectives who want to learn everything they can about you. As long as all of your content is appropriate, unpolitical, and education-focused, you should be fine. An Inservice Guest Blogger (2017) from ASCD’s Inservice Blog suggested you make a separate Twitter account if you are interested in following political or personal accounts or posting political or personal messages. Just as the limit to 280 characters can help a reader/lurker, it can limit the user who is posting. However, it cannot hurt to practice being concise with your wording. If you cannot fit your message into those 280 characters, the way to work around this limit is by linking ideas to a Google Document or an outside article. While Twitter is a great way to quickly share ideas, so many people have ideas and even individual people have a large number of Tweets. This means that great ideas can get buried over time. You might think about tweets as just a moment in time. Make sure you save those good ideas elsewhere instead of trying to scroll through pages of tweets later. One possible flaw of using Twitter as your PLN is the fact that users are not on at the same time. The discussions are meant to be asynchronous. Even though users may be notified when someone comments on their post, the response may come later. Educational twitter chats are one way to make synchronous conversations, but the times may not be convenient for everyone. Finally, teachers who use Twitter in the classroom may run into some problems. First, there is the likely possibility that students already have their own personal accounts with non-educational (or perhaps not appropriate) material. While some teachers welcome previous accounts, I would prefer to ask my students to use their school emails to create new, educational-only Twitter accounts. Similarly, as with other public forums, Twitter cannot be regulated by the teacher. If cyber-bullying occurs, the teacher may be able to catch it and provide consequences, but it will take days for Twitter to respond to the flagged tweet. Students may be exposed to negative comments or crude images posted by the public. Flagging a tweet as inappropriate will help, but the response will be delayed.

Twitter as Professional Growth

As mentioned above, Twitter can certainly be used for one’s Professional Growth as a teacher. I would even consider Twitter use a professional development tool, if used correctly. An educator could make an educational Twitter account, follow only educators that add value to their feeds, and check their feeds regularly. It is so easy to get good ideas from other educators. Teaching is not meant to be a solo job and we need to collaborative to be effective. There is no need to limit collaboration and idea sharing to one building. Use your colleagues from different buildings, districts, states, and even countries by following them on Twitter. Hashtags and educational twitter chats give teachers ways to connect their tweets to others’ thoughts about the topic. Finally, teacher can ask students to use the platform to share their ideas and relate the content to the “real” world.

References

Inservice Guest Blogger. (2017, July 11). Twitter and Your Professional Learning Network. Retrieved July 1, 2019, from http://inservice.ascd.org/twitter-and-your-professional-learning-network/