If you read, ‘I have probably learnt more in the last six months on ------- than in the previous twenty years of teaching’, you would be intrigued to know what the hidden word is. If you then read, ‘-------- connects me, as an educator, with an unprecedented and global bank of ideas, activities and most importantly people.’ You may be even more interested to know what the resource is’. Finally, ‘it's great for sharing good practice mostly by pointers to external links, research or articles’ was one last quote on the same resource.
All these teachers are talking about twitter, the social networking site which millions of people use every day and is gathering a large following amongst many teachers. Many people’s view of twitter is that it allows people to talk about the banalities of life or as a way of following the daily life of celebrities. Stephen Fry was one of the first famous people to really be known for tweeting. Sports lovers may think of slips on twitter such as when Kevin Pieterson reflected on being dropped from the England Cricket Team with a statement containing expletives. A tweet which was later deleted and replaced with an apology.
Two questions that may in be in your mind are what is the point of twitter? Is it worthwhile as a teacher twittering? A third may be around safety or issues of safeguarding which a teacher needs to be aware of.
The Dangers of Social Networking Sites
Teachers have to take care when they are using social networking sites. There are perhaps three main dangers to be aware. The first is that if you publicise your contact information such as phone number or address, pupils may find the information and in some cases harass the teacher. The second is that any public pronouncements or photographs you have on the site can be read by anyone. So perhaps take care as to whether your put up your beach holidays pictures or discuss a recent night out in too much detail unless you want your pupils to see it. The final danger of is befriending pupils on such sites and then allegations being made about the propriety of such relationships. Common sense and the use of privacy settings can avoid these dangers though. The same care needs to be taken when communicating with any student electronically, there can be a temptation to accidentally type something that we wouldn’t dream of saying in a classroom.
Twitter
The idea of twitter is that you have 140 characters to answer the question, ‘What’s happening?’ which on the surface hardly seems an opening to such educational opportunities as were described above. When I first used twitter along with many people, I followed a few famous people that I was interested in and a couple of friends and hardly sent any tweets, as a result I used it more as another news service rather than a method of networking. From that experience I would not have imagined using twitter as a form CPD.
One question that you might ask is who reads your 140 characters of wisdom? In twitter as well as being able to follow people, other people can follow you. Every time you write a comment this is passed onto your followers. Key to getting the most out of Twitter is to build up a group of people who follow you. If you want to build up a community of followers, you need to actively engage with twitter.
Tips on building your community
1) Write a short profile explaining who you are and what you do. Include some of your interests but remember this is public information so don’t write you are a naturist or a regular cannabis smoker!
2) It is unlikely that Brad Pitt or Kylie Minogue will follow you but fellow educationalists will. Search for individual people who you may know and follow them or you could also follow well known educational commentators and magazines such as Sec Ed.
3) Look at who is following Sec Ed and read people’s profiles and follow those who share your interests.
4) Regularly write your own comments, forwarding other’s comments known as retweeting and answer people’s questions.
5) Read quoted articles and give your thoughts on them or retweet them.
6) Use #Hashtags to pull people together on a specific topic such as #ukedchat is a forum which discusses educational topics on Thursday evenings. Finding a hashtag for a chosen specialisation will also find you more people to follow (and can follow you, if you use it).
7) There is little point in following people that follow 10,000 people but only have a few followers themselves. These are likely to be automated message services.
8) To make best use of your 140 characters use a URL (website address) shortening service such as TinyURL and Bit.ly. If you use a twitter app on your mobile phone this may already be built in.
9) Why not ask people’s view on a certain issue such as a really good resource, assembly idea of information on a certain issue? Put ‘please RT’ at the end. I’ve received some really interesting comments!
A Final Thought
Many teachers realise that education is cyclical with the comment there are no new ideas in education. Twitter can act as a virtual staffroom with teachers full of sage wisdom sharing their thoughts with you. Just as in your own staffroom, if you never visit or join in the conversation, people are unlikely to help you if you ask. However if you participate in the chatter every so often it can be a real support in your working life. There is obviously the one caveat that unlike the famous sporting phrase, what happens on tour, stays on tour... what is said on twitter is there for all to see!
Paul Ainsworth is the Vice Principal of a Leicestershire secondary school and the author of ‘Developing a self-evaluating school’, and the forthcoming 'Get That Teaching Job!'
You can follow both the Continuum Education team @continuumed and Paul on Twitter @pkainsworth
[To read the full article, printed in SecEd, click here and flick to page 15.]
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