Lessons from Learning on Twitter

In her last post the quote that Mary Kate shared really spoke to me:

As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.  ---Amy Poehler

My biggest take away from Mary Kate’s last post was how her class’ collaborative response was so much more inclusive than one person’s response. This was possible through technology. I realized that this was a great example of how technology enhanced the learning. 

Lately I have been reminded that we need to teach technology as a tool. This past week Hilliard hosted Ohio's Innovative LearningConference.   As I followed on twitter #ileOhio, I saw Tweets from https://twitter.com/frankisibberson, Franki Sibberson’s keynote address. There were several Tweets about how our expectations change when the use of technology is authentic.  Mary Kate’s experience in her cyber class shows how technology enhanced not only the collaboration but also the depth of the learning and ultimately the final comment.

Several years back I was invited to a gathering where teachers came together and talked about their learning and use of technology.  This group is responsible for introducing me to Twitter.  I left that meeting very excited to be a part of the Twitter world.  I loved it for a bit and then I hit a wall.  I simple couldn’t keep up or didn’t have the strategies to manage Twitter in an effective way – time-wise and professionally. 

So I made the decision to take a break from twitter. 

Several years later, I started noticing that I was missing some very strong, relevant, helpful posts on Twitter.  I knew this because posts were announced on Facebook.  This actually led me back to Twitter and I am so thankful. Now I don’t know what I would do professionally without Twitter.  The community and connections are part of my professional lifelines.  I have learned how to skim and search for what I want to read and to manage my time spent on Twitter.  I am also learning to be more of a participant. The links for posts on blogs and articles are an important part of my professional learning, thinking and collaborating.  Luckily at several summer conferences I have met some of my Twitter friends in person - my learning circle continues to grow! But I had to learn for myself the need I had for Twitter and how it fueled me as a learner.  I am now learning how to participate more and trust myself as a contributing participant, to not just listen (read) but to post too, to collaborate more!

Mary Kate asked us when do we talk and when do we listen? Twitter is my example for this question. I had to listen for a long time on Twitter before I could talk.  No one judged me for just listening (reading), although I was sometimes nudged that I had something to share!  We all know this is true for some of our students.  Sometimes as learners we have to listen and feel the security of the community before we talk.  How can we learn if we don’t stop, listen and open our minds to the contributions and thoughts of others?  On the flip, how will I contribute, put myself out there in order to share my own thinking in progress?  I am thankful for all those who are willing to share and feed our learning.  I have to do the same even if my thinking is constantly a work in progress!  How will I nudge students to do the same, to contribute with their thinking?  How will you do this for your students?  Perhaps it will be through technology that students find voice and community.

This year I am going to try to practice listening more. What would you change in your classroom if you challenged yourself to listen more closely to those strong voices of adults and children around you?

Here is my book share for the day, from my summer reading.   I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD  I received a message from Mary Lee Hahn http://readingyear.blogspot.com that simply said "Stop everything and read this book!"  How could I ignore such recommendation!  And I am so glad that I followed her advice for this quick read.  I choose this book for this post because there is example of the power of collaboration and the power of authentic use of technology!  AND SO SO MUCH MORE! (Believe me the big message is not about technology and collaboration, but you'll have to follow my friend's advice to find out and "Stop everything and read this book!"