Have you ever wondered whether you, as an educator or someone in the field of education, should get on Twitter? And even if you did join Twitter, how would it be helpful to you and how does it work?
These are all questions that blogger Evan L. R. Hays addresses in a post for the Tioki blog. Tioki is a social media website for teachers. It bills itself as the “the online professional network exclusively for the education community.” The Tioki blog attempts to offer practical takeaways for its members and readers.
Here is a brief excerpt from the post that describes the utility of Twitter for educators:
The main utility of Twitter for educators is to help us all stay informed about the education climate surrounding us that is so rapidly changing. Moreover, Twitter allows us to easily stay up on news from a variety of types of sources, enabling us to have a more comprehensive view of the often partisan wrangling over education politics. With questions over standardized testing, Common Core, ESEA re-authorization, NCLB waivers, Race to the Top funding, and new technology in the classroom—to name only a few—all looming, staying abreast of changes is more difficult and essential than ever. I have it from a number of education PhD’s who have had their noses to the ground in education for a while that changes are coming much more rapidly in education than they have in decades past. This is where Twitter comes in.
The post then goes on to outline technology tools, etiquette, and search functions. Finally, the post concludes with the basics of who is on Twitter and how to know about good education Twitter accounts to follow.
If you are on Twitter, but don’t use it very much, or have thought about joining Twitter but haven’t quite taken the plunge, this blog post is a great place to start.
Following is the link to the post: http://blog.tioki.com/a-brief-primer-on-twitter-for-educators/?doing_wp_cron=1362593570.2928841114044189453125
