Journal 2: Join The Flock

Ferguson, H. (2011). Join the flock. Learning and Leading, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-june-july-2011.aspx


NETS-T 1, 3, 5


This article addresses information about personal learning networks using the tool Twitter. What is important for me to grasp about this new idea of using Twiter as an educational tool is to put aside all the bad gossip I hear about it on TV. This truly does have the potential to be a place to learn and what makes it amazing is that it has become a "community of individuals around the world learning together," versus the method I am so use to which is learning by myself. I have come to believe that learning with other people can be much more impacting not to mention simpler. Simpler in the sense that whatever it is you are researching, through communication and collaboration with others/ your Twitter community, is already there for you to find with a variety of resources being Twitted. However, as stated in the article, Twitter is a commitment and I love the analogy the article uses that it is like starting a new friendship.  Using hash-tags is helpful in keeping Twitter a place for learning. Hash-tags are showing what the Tweets pertain too for example educational information, using a hash-tag can mean more people will see what you are sharing. Increased functionality of Twitter can also be obtained through other tools such as Twitter organizers/managers, I signed up for one called HootSuite. This article was full of useful information in explaining Twitter as a source for personal learning networks.


1.) What if I'm not comfortable enough to Tweet any posts on Twitter?
A great part of Twitter is that you never really need to Tweet anything if you aren't comfortable and still you will get a lot out of it. However, you can Re-Tweet someone else's post to send their message/ideas along if their post was useful for you and they will usually appreciate it.


2.) What can Twitter organizers or managers help with?
Twitter organizers can put you Twitter streams into columns. For example, ED422 has it's own column so you can see specifically any posts that have hash-tags with ed422. This is very helpful for me because when I first looked at Twitter it seemed a bit overwhelming. It can be hard to follow when millions of people are tweeting every second. A twitter organizer also allowed me to pause or save a chat which is helpful since again everything can be happening so fast in discussions.