The Twitter Experience

Using Twitter with more regularity as a result of my recent #ed584 grad class has afforded me with the opportunity to explore this service a bit more in-depth as a professional development tool for cultivating a personal learning network (PLN). Admittedly, I've known the thrill of connecting with a like-minded community of peers who share similar interests via Twitter since I first became a user in June of 2009.

However, using Twitter for "personal" interests vs. "professional" interests has been a different endeavor entirely. While on the topic, yes, I am a proponent of having a personal, protected account in addition to a professional account. I don't fully subscribe to the opinion that educators need to be as "transparent" as some more liberal-minded folks out there, who manage to strike the balance between being personable, human and professional with one, singular account. While I also realize that "anything can be found online, whether you try to protect it or not," I also DO feel entitled (one of my LEAST favorite words) to a certain degree of privacy and balance to keep our personal lives personal and professional lives professional. That doesn't mean we cannot have fun as professionals, though :) I also think this can serve as an effective teaching model for students; sometimes it really does boil down to appropriate time and place.

Participating in Twitter chats has been particularly beneficial for PD purposes. While our grad class maintains it's running record of comments and blog posts, I've enjoyed joining the conversation in professional circles related to my interests as a library media specialist. In particular, I find #TLchat (short of Teacher-Librarian) to be quite useful, and often amusing. Below is a sample of one such attempt to join this conversation:

.@NikkiDRobertson Dislike "policing" my academic HS library for "noise." Paras/fellow TL r conservative/traditional. Help! #moedchat #tlchat

— Mike McKenna (@librarymediaman) February 5, 2016

Not the best response came from this post; none. Could have had something to do with the fact this chat was probably intended for teachers in Missouri exclusively. However, as @paulbogush has informed us, it's tough being the new person at the party, and people won't necessarily respond to you just because you said something.

So, I'll continue to practice what I preach with my students: being resilient, respectful, confident and curious, I'll continue participating in Twitter chats and look forward to using this social media tool for professional (and personal) purposes for years to come.