as a Professional Tool

AS A PROFESSIONAL TOOL

#gresadrivein

Aaryn SchmuhlAssistant Superintendent

Learning and Leadership ServicesHenry County Schools

Purpose and Take-aways Learn how to use Twitter Learn how Twitter can enhance in-class

and out of-class learning, Learn how Twitter can enhance

professional development via resource sharing, collaboration, individualized learning, & leadership

Define Connected Educator and PLN

Who am I? Former Principal at Luella Middle School Asst. Superintendent in Henry County

Schools Passionate about power of blended

learning Passionate about professional learning

and professional dialogue with educators Founder and co-moderator of #gaed Connected Educator

What’s a connected educator?

Take a few minutes to brainstorm with your neighbors to define Connected Educator

Definition:

Connected Educators

Connected educators are "do-it-yourself learners.“

Connected educators have a "network of collective wisdom" to turn to when information and knowledge is needed.

Connected educators are "collaborative learners."

Connected educators have moved away from the "paradigm of isolation and closed doors" to sharing a strong commitment with other educators to learn and understand more and more about teaching and learning.

Connected educators have leveraged online networks to solve their instructional problems through crowdsourcing and relying on the wisdom of the crowd for resources on teaching and learning.

-Nussbaum-Beach and Hall (2011)

My Journey on Twitter? 2010- GaETC

Signed up for Twitter 2011- GaETC

Remembered I had signed up for Twitter at the conference the previous year, reset my password, followed some folks, caught onto #satchat

2012- GaETC Built out my PLN, started #gaed, jumped into a

lot chats 2013- Nominated for Bammy Award largely

due to PLN and being a connected educators

The Twitter Basics Twitter.com

The Basic Parts of an Account

Handle – professional, maybe some personality

@ Profile– necessary for non-lurkers; no

profile, no followers

Following

People @TomWhitby

@web20classroom

@teachingwthsoul @cybraryman1 @nmhs_principal @gcouros

Organizations @educationweek @edutopia @eyeoneducation @edudemic @isteconnects @mindshiftkqed

Figuring out who to follow Stalk other people’s followers & following

- Look @ profiles- Look @ # of followers

Watch who posts using hashtags of interest to you

Follow as many as you want, you don’t have to keep up with it all.

How do I tweet? How many characters? What is this: # What does it mean to “tweet at”? RT ? MT ? DM?

Retweet Modified Tweet Direct Message

Who sees my tweets? General settings: Followers Anyone who searches / follows any #s used Anyone who searches any terms used

Possible to limit to followers only

Using # (hashtags) Hashtags are used to share with a

broader community #ncadmin Hashtags are used for specific audiences

#gresadrivein #projectmehcs

Hashtags are used for chats #gaed #ntchat #satchat #ptchat #sbgchat #byotchat #ellchat #edchat

Chats Use an app like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to

manage and organize chats Chats are fast paced and you can’t always

keep up with it Choose to lurk to begin and then jump right in A great way to engage in professional

dialogue Complete List of Twitter Edu Chats:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiftIdjCeWSXdDRLRzNsVktUUGJpRWJhdUlWLS1Genc#gid=0

Why Bother Tweeting? Get Connected Fight Isolation Share Resources Asynchronous and Syncronous Learning Connect your students with other

students and classrooms and professionals

Keep up to date with the profession Individualized PL Connects new and veteran Ts

Twitter as a Professional Network

Connect with educators around the country

See/hear possibilities and ideas On Demand learning and engagement Give and take Encouragement Inspiration Knowledge

Twitter as A Classroom Tool

Do nows Backchanneling Find related resources Communication & questions –

teacher- student, student-student, professionals-students

Classroom Use of Twitter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w9CnaeaiAE&list=PLui3i0IG-_tFiF7MdB4Qgoru9QMi3dGgq

Words of Advice for Classroom Use

Adults shouldn’t follow students in general – make use of hashtags instead

Kids can/should follow adults Professional accounts vs. Personal

accounts

Questions and Discussion Join the #gaed conversation every

Thursday night at 8 PM Simply follow #gaed September 25’s Topic is Transforming

Education, an extension of Leadership Atlanta’s (co)lab conference this week. #colab13