Journal #2 Join the Flock! & Enhance Your Twitter Experience/ Nets-T 3 & 5

Miller McClintock, Shannon. (2010). Enhance you twitter experience. Learning and leading with technology, 37(June/July), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=June_July_No_8_2&Template=/Members

Ferguson, Hadley. (2010). Join the flock!. Learning and leading with technology,37(June/July),Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues?Volumes37200920

Journal #2 “Join the Flock!” and “Enhance Your Twitter Experience”

NETS-3
NETS-5

“Join the Flock” and “Enhance Your Twitter Experience” brought on great ideas and encouragement for using Twitter and incorporating it into our everyday life experience. The idea of teachers creating a PLN, or Professional Learning Network is very wise because there is so much information in the world that our every day, person to person interaction cannot fulfill. Ferguson described Twitter as a location where people, specifically teachers can create a community and learn together. The idea of “lurking” without tweeting made creating a PLN much less scary because it doesn’t hurt to just observe, right?

McClintock was more specific in her article by describing and communicating the benefits of having a twitter. She presented the idea of a Tweetdeck, which I then downloaded, and found how efficient it was in maintaining my Myspace, Facebook and Twitter all on one page. She also provided a Twitter terminology chart to help those who are Twitter illiterate. My favorite part about reading this article was the encouragement she gave in saying that it’s not easy at first, but with the help of resources and the goal of being strategic, maintaining a PLN is important and effective for classroom teachers.

Question#1: Are there any negative things incorporated with having a Twitter?

Answer#1: The only two drawbacks I see are 1) time. This process takes time and effort to make it efficient enough to use. 2) Who you are on Twitter, represents what people will think about you. It is important to maintain a professional atmosphere on Twitter or any personal network.

Question#2: Is it reasonable to say that Twitter will become “big” in the education world in years to come?

Answer#2: I think that Twitter is a big competitor, and if teachers and staff of a school learn how to use it well then it may become a large part of education. As of right now though, I do think there is still a negative stigma with social networks.