Journal #4: "Join the Flock!" and "Enhance Your Twitter Experience"

Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(8), 13-15. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx. 

Miller, S. M. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(8), 14-15. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-june-july-2010.aspx.


Summary: Ferguson's article provides a clear and concise how-to guide for teachers exploring the world of Personal Learning Networks on Twitter for the first time, providing suggestions of people to follow and addressing the fear of overexposure on the web so that new users can build up their confidence and participation level gradually.  In the related article, McClintock Miller offers tips for those who are using Twitter regularly as part of their teaching PLN and who are ready to upgrade their Twitter use through online organizers like TweetDeck or HootSuite.


My initial reaction to the thought of building an online PLN through Twittter was a bunch of questions --"How will I ever find the time for this in addition to my other teaching duties??  Where do I start?  Do I have to actually tweet anything?" I had to smile as I read Haley Ferguson's article because it seemed as though she wrote with me in mind, addressing most all of these questions in order!  I especially appreciated her easy-going approach, which did not make me feel behind or inept.  She also said it's OK for new Twitter users to just watch and learn for awhile before tweeting on their own, although she definitely encouraged her audience to move on to re-tweeting and posting new information for followers.

Question #1:  Is it really important for a teacher to have a wide, online PLN as opposed to a traditional group of co-workers or a personal mentor?

Answer:  Like Haley Ferguson pre-Twitter, I tend to be a teacher who is comfortable doing research as needed on my own, or bringing questions to a respected colleague.  I know what approaches work best for me and I hesitate to recommend or suggest what might work for others.  I have no gift for sales and don't see myself as an expert at anything.  Thus I am very wary of Twitter involvement.  I don't want to be buried in piles of helpful-but-not-world-changing information, nor do I want people I've never met forming judgments about me or my practices.  According to Ferguson, a Twitter-based PLN will allow me access to a much bigger "library" of education information than I could ever reach physically by virtually expanding my pool of co-workers and thus increasing the chances of finding specific help in my areas of interest.  If/when I am willing to share my own classroom experiences with others, as Ferguson does, I will benefit from their feedback and encouragement.  The key to mitigating my concern about negative judgments comes in one of Ferguson's concluding sentences: "Over time I have built relationships with people I know only by their photos or avatars, but they are real people to me nonetheless."  Once I have built relationships with educators in my own PLN--and they've become "real people" to me--it's more likely I'll be comfortable sharing my ideas and experiences with them.  

Question #2:  What are the advantages of using a Twitter organizer?

Answer: A Twitter manager like TweetDeck or HootSuite will organize your tweet stream into columns onscreen by categories that you chose, keeping you from being overwhelmed by the flood of information.  These sites will also help you "work smarter, not harder" because they include features that simplify composing a tweet, re-tweeting, sending replies and direct messages, translating a foreign-language tweet (!!), and updating multiple social-networking sites simultaneously.