Tweet, Tweet

Okay, I must admit, I was pretty skeptical about the whole twitter thing before starting my Teaching & Learning with Technology course. Without having an actual educator's perspective on it, I figured it was just another way to keep tabs on what Justin Bieber was doing at all times. But @zbpipe (our professor's professional twitter username) has truly unlocked some magical educational doors for me, something I greatly appreciate.

I've already networked with dozens and dozens of educators I surely never would have without twitter. All of them posting regularly with insightful comments, links to even more thought provoking blogs, and the resources just never end!

But this weekend is what really has me writing. Without twitter I would have never heard about the 2011 Reform Symposium Virtual Conference. On Saturday morning I couldn't help but noticed multiple educators that I follow tweeting like crazy about " #rscon11 " and I had to figure out what it was all about. Turns out it was an online conference with teachers and professionals around the world (okay so it ended up being mainly from North America, but I saw a couple from South America too!) conversing about various educational topics. From learning about Glogs with Mike Olcott and Jim Dachos to having almost 100 people sit in on a session with David Ginsburg discussing effective classroom management strategies (one of, if not the, main concern of new teachers!) I really couldn't even believe that I was actively participating in such an amazing community of passionate educators from my bed! We could raise our hand, applaud and speak with the microphone to ask questions directly to the speakers! They shared their desktops to show us exactly how to navigate resources or left the whiteboard open for us, the audience, to collaboratively share our stories (like in the "One Thing I've Learned" session).

I have a short attention span and start skimming an article when it gets to be about this length, so I'm going to try to keep my posts concise. Moral of the story, Twitter is one of the best PD steps a teacher in the 21st Century can take.