Wondering how to use Twitter to create your own personalized PD? That is exactly what I was wondering until the middle of 2013.
As I check my Twitter feed these days, I have been thinking and reflecting: How did I get to this point in my professional growth using Twitter for PD? (And I'm still a newbie at all this- really.)
October 2011: Attended an educational technology conference, went to a "Twitter for PD" session, presenter talked about PD a bit, but spent most of the time telling us about how she has her students Tweet in class on iPod touches. I don't get it.
The very next day, October 2011: Created my Twitter account. Sent first Tweet to a friend. Played around with it a bit. Really did not understand how this was going to work for me. Followed my 21 year old son and a few museums, a few people I knew. Twitter is not very exciting at this point.
All of 2012: Had a discussion with son- so what is with this Twitter thing? I still don't get it!!! He told me I could get local or world news that I wanted quicker with Twitter. Hmmm. So I followed some local news stations. I used Twitter for news updates quite successfully through a few severe storms (Snowtober, Superstorm Sandy, and another hurricane I do not remember the name of) which produced severe power outages we endured for many days, a week in some cases. I got the latest news from Twitter and posted it on Facebook for my local friends. I was surprised that some colleagues at work thanked me afterwards- they had no way to get any news and were happy that I was posting it.
2013: In early 2013, I really did not use or check Twitter at all. I thought it was probably a waste of my time.
March 2013. I was lucky enough to be one of fourteen teachers in my school to be given an iPad2 to use for work. And that is when I remembered something from that "Twitter for PD" session way back in 2011. Didn't that presenter say that I could learn from others on Twitter? It was time to get online and figure out how I could actually do it.