Thoughts on Twitter
I have to begin by admitting that I am relatively new to Twitter. In 2016, I had a Communications Internship with a literacy non-profit. I felt comfortable with all of our platforms for communication, except for Twitter. I taught myself the basics and used scheduled releases to release the same information to Facebook, Twitter and our blog - but I didn't interact with others often on Twitter. Again, in 2019, I took a class within the EDCI program and dabbled with Twitter, but soon abandoned it as a platform for gaining access to new information and content. This is my third go around with Twitter. I appreciated the variety in tasks for the week because it seemed like a valuable learning task. If I were to ask my students to use Twitter, designing a similar task would make sense. I had to troubleshoot issues and learn how to navigate the site, while expanding my network. Creating a professional network already gave me some responsibility to myself and others to post content and interact with others. With that said, I am hopeful that through similar tasks this semester, I will come to see the value in using Twitter as a place to learn and grow from educators around the world.
On another note, reading George Couros's blog, Has "Twitter" Changed or Has Our View? made me think about a few key purposes for using Twitter. One thing that resonated with me was the idea of Twitter as a space to provide positive feedback. Courous says if you are only ever to receive negative feedback or argumentative responses, you are likely to begin avoiding that particular person. For that reason, when possible, he tries to promote positive ideas and thoughts. When you promote the positive you empower people and make good ideas heard over and over again. I like the idea of thinking of Twitter as a constructive personal learning community. While I don't have depth in experience with Twitter, I can say that what George explains has happened to me with a colleague and it definitely changed the nature of our relationship. Promoting the positive and leaving the negative (especially online) is one lesson to be learned from George's blog.
Another idea that Couros offered that I found to be good advice for somebody new to Twitter is share your own content and the content of others. If you believe it is good content that will help educators and in turn help students, it is worth sharing. Again, Twitter can be a space for professional and personal growth. By sharing original content and promoting quality content of others' you are expanding the capacity and potential of the information to impact a greater number of people.
In summary, I couldn't really tell you if Twitter is changing because I don't have enough experience with it previously. But I can say that after reading George's blog, I appreciate his outlook and view of Twitter as a tool for promoting really good ideas. We need more positivity in education, let's make an effort to put it all out there!
On another note, reading George Couros's blog, Has "Twitter" Changed or Has Our View? made me think about a few key purposes for using Twitter. One thing that resonated with me was the idea of Twitter as a space to provide positive feedback. Courous says if you are only ever to receive negative feedback or argumentative responses, you are likely to begin avoiding that particular person. For that reason, when possible, he tries to promote positive ideas and thoughts. When you promote the positive you empower people and make good ideas heard over and over again. I like the idea of thinking of Twitter as a constructive personal learning community. While I don't have depth in experience with Twitter, I can say that what George explains has happened to me with a colleague and it definitely changed the nature of our relationship. Promoting the positive and leaving the negative (especially online) is one lesson to be learned from George's blog.
Another idea that Couros offered that I found to be good advice for somebody new to Twitter is share your own content and the content of others. If you believe it is good content that will help educators and in turn help students, it is worth sharing. Again, Twitter can be a space for professional and personal growth. By sharing original content and promoting quality content of others' you are expanding the capacity and potential of the information to impact a greater number of people.
In summary, I couldn't really tell you if Twitter is changing because I don't have enough experience with it previously. But I can say that after reading George's blog, I appreciate his outlook and view of Twitter as a tool for promoting really good ideas. We need more positivity in education, let's make an effort to put it all out there!
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