Friday, July 11, 2014

Why do educators need Twitter?

I'm terrible at predicting the success of new ideas in technology. When Google came to my attention a dozen years ago, I was using Yahoo as my portal to the web. I couldn't believe anyone would want to use this plain looking search engine when Yahoo offered news, sports, and more from its home page. My early analysis of Amazon was it was nothing special. And then there was Twitter. Why would anyone want to post on this weird site where you are limited to just 140 characters? Who cares what you had for breakfast?

I never would have dreamed in a million years that millions of education related Tweets would post each day. Educators are finding Twitter a powerful way to connect, collaborate, and communicate with each other.


So why do you need Twitter? Why build a PLN? With Twitter and other collaborative tools available, educators who are working in isolation, and not connecting with people from all around the world, are making a conscious decision to do so. Isolation is the enemy of improvement. If we want to grow into the best leaders possible, we need to network with the best education leaders out there. Many of them are on Twitter and sharing their knowledge freely. 

Twitter is a place to share resources, be inspired, push your thinking, own your learning, and find new opportunities. I'm grateful to innovative educators who helped me realize the power of Twitter.

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