Twitter+Reflection

Day 1 - June 22 nd
Not all that excited to read about people making casserole so haven’t been all that interested in Twitter but I’ve talked to a few people who insist it is great if you follow with a purpose so I’ve chosen some education / technology people to follow: Jen Wagner, Ian Jukes, David Jakes, Lee Lefever and Steve Hargadon (who runs Classroom 2.0). Ian Jukes I have seen speak and liked many of the points he made. David Jakes has been in my perview before. I’ve recently come across Classroom 2.0 and thought it would be interesting to follow its creator. I saw some of Lee Lefever’s screencasts and thought I could learn something from him and Jen Wagner was recommended to me. With these people to follow, I’m hopeful that it will be interesting. My screen name is MediaMutant Favorite post of the day from Jen Wagner: **New HS computer tchr for next year just stopped by. First question, what typing program do we use. Is it okay that I cry now?** I have been in this place – both funny and sad. It unfortunately says a lot about where we really are in education.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference is coming up next week so there has been some discussion about what will be happening there and where to get information online while it is happening. I’ve followed some of the links but it hasn’t been all that helpful as the conference hasn’t started yet so the information is more of the “check back later” variety.

I will say that posts have been a mixture of interesting and boring. I’m looking forward to seeing more.

Day 2 – June 23
Favorite post of the day: Link to Social Networking Goes To School which ties nicely with this class. The article explores and gives examples of social networking in education but points out “ In fact, most social-networking sites like Facebook and Ning require users to be at least 13 to participate. That’s why private wikis or blogs or other social-networking tools designed for school use can often be more beneficial in such situations ” which is exactly the problem I run into as a K-6 educator. Also, my district does not provide email for students so for students to use most online collaborative tools, we would have to contact parents and ask them to set up email accounts for their children and then let us know what that email address is for us to register children for these tools – something unlikely to happen as the likelihood of all students arriving back at school a week later with an email account are pretty much zero. I liked this article because of the class tie in and the realistic approach they took with the positives and negatives of using these tools. Most posts are of the travel variety and really not helpful. Still it was nice to find a couple of good nuggets today.

Day 3 – June 24
Disappointing day. Links to some pictures, and a few travel news type posts. Nothing I can walk away with today.

Day 4 – June 25
A post on texting and driving and one on a suicide note left on Twitter. Mostly links to others’ twitter posts and travel posts from people heading to ISTE in Denver. Not all that great of a posting day. What is kind of nice is that with the short posts, you get to see the main idea without having to wade through a bunch of text and it is nice to see the posts from everyone I’m following all on the same page. Hoping tomorrow is better.

Day 5 – June 26
ISTE has started and people are hearing interesting items and posting some of them and in some cases linking to others’ Twitter accounts. I followed to some of these and found the Tweets from chrislehmann are interesting as they have a more educator than technology focus so it brought up ideas I probably wouldn’t see with the people I’m following right now. There was a reference to ISTE’s “Smackdown” (Speed Demos) which streamed live and I would have loved to see but alas, I did not see the post until later in the day and am not sure I would have had access anyway. I may look for more information online next week when people will have had time to digest the conference and post more insights.

Day 6 – June 27
Favorite post of the day: Interesting post linking to an article dealing with a possible internet “kill switch” which would allow the president to shut down the internet in an emergency? I have a hard time thinking of a circumstance other than widespread hacking in which this would be helpful. The idea does get you thinking though. Can’t this be done today on a small scale by dealing with the providers? When things are going wrong, isn’t it helpful to have the internet providing information? This is something I will come back to and ponder some more. Would I be in favor or against such presidential control? Other posts show the impatience of the digital age with posts about digital device use and when ISTE information will be available – a few that suggested that information should be posted as it happens. We do like our instant information.

Day 7 – June 28
Posts that link to the blogs of Steve Hargadon, Jen Wagner and Ian Jukes. The Sardine Blog has a video that questions teaching methods in the digital age and says “Education is more than reading and assignments”. I think it serves its purpose in getting people to think about how they teach. Now if it would just stay in their minds until they have learned more about teaching in the digital age. Steve Hargadon’s site has links to other sites I may want to spend some time at. I’ll check his site out more when I have time. Jen Wagner’s blog has a post that reminds us to keep in mind that what is happening at other schools may not be what can or should happen at our own schools. We may have different teachers, resources, administrators, facilities, populations so let’s not make excuses for what we don’t have or don’t do and use what we have to achieve what we can. A nice way to look at things when you get frustrated as I do sometimes when I see all the great technology that could be used to engage students but that my district blocks or doesn’t have the funds to support. I don’t give up. I just keep looking until I find something that will work in my district. I usually think it is out there and I usually find things that are an improvement on what my schools are using now.

Final Thoughts
Twitter was more manageable than I thought before I got started. There was at least a 2/3 to 1/3 useless to useful posts but it is fairly easy to quickly read through the posts and get to what you are interested in. I have to admit that it was both exiting and frustrating to be following Twitter as ISTE conference was going on. The excitement of new information and lots of sharing going on was great but the ISTE live links were frustrating because I would have liked to have seen them but usually didn’t get to Twitter until the end of the day. I can see how this could be a nice tool to have if you spend more time at your computer during the day but when I teach, I am just not at my computer that much and I certainly can’t take the time to read through blogs or posts on interesting topics. This means I will be checking Twitter at the end of the day as I did this week and realize that some things will no longer be relevant. I don’t know that I will continue to follow Twitter regularly or post my own Tweets but I do think I will check back from time to time to check on the people I’ve been following and perhaps add a few more people to follow. Some of the information was interesting and made me think about my own practices and what is possible in the future. I don’t know that much of it was terribly practical or immediately applicable which is what makes Twitter optional for me. I am more likely to look for Wikis that provide practical ideas about using technology in education where I can also post my thoughts as well. I would not have Twittered without this assignment. The experience was a good one and much less painful than I thought. I do see the value of this type of forum and may do more with it in the future.