I reluctantly joined Twitter in November 2011, which thank you
+Raul Babolea for pushing me to get on! Similar to the typical tweeter just starting out, I didn't know what I was doing nor did I understand the "point" of writing a tweet. "What's with all the hashtags? My "Timeline" sure looks different than Facebook." I thought the myself.
I started following educators (or every tweeter my colleagues followed), sifting though tweets and composing some of my own tweets. I was using twitter as a
Substitution to reading online articles or emails. My first tweet was when I was in Portland ME at
Leveraging Leaning: The iPad in Primary Grades event where I first met Dr. Ruben Puentedura. I don't know who my audience was as I didn't include a hashtag or an @. The only people that probably saw the tweet were my few followers & colleagues I was with at the time. However, it was a start and thankfully twitter allows you to go back and see your
#firsttweet!
About a year later, I started using images in my tweets, after Scott Meech requested to see a t-shirt I was tweeting about. Oddly enough the tweet referenced #SAMR. I had taken twitter from the Substitution level up to the Augmentation level by adding pictures, links, and reaching out to educators (still mostly I had met) on Twitter.
My learning went above the line when I started using twitter at educational conferences like #iste2013 #ice14 #iplza14 #iste2014 & #ettsummit14. I used twitter to connect with educators that were going to the same conferences, attended their sessions, connected with them in person at the conference, encouraged others to follow them, and continued to connect with these tweeters after the conference.
+Sue Gorman and I met at Apple Academy, I attended one of her #iste2013 sessions, and the following summer we were presenting together at #iplza14.
The above experiences brought my twitter presence to
Modification. My teaching and learning was significantly redesigned. On twitter, I was reaching out to educators, staying connected, planning conference proposals, and learning about other conferences from my followers. I would not have attended #iplza14 (let alone presented) if it weren't for
+Sue Gorman & my PLN.
How did I bring my twitter usage to
redefinition? Last night, I co-moderated my first twitter chat, #cmsk12chat with
+Ashley Hurley on the topic- Best Practices with #SAMR & #TPACK. Why is a twitter chat redefinition? First of all I met Ashley at #iste14 in the break room preparing for my poster session, "Above the Line Teaching & Learning." We were both trying to finish our presentations, but quickly distracted each other by "teacher talking" and sharing a few resources. #SAMR caught her eye, and I was talking about the
Blended Ladder. We stayed in touch after ISTE, shared a few tweets, and #FF. Thanks Ashley! About a month ago Ashley DM'd me asking to co-moderate a twitter chat. I told her I had never even participated in a twitter chat from start to finish, but I wanted to give it a try! Ashley shared a Google Doc to familiarize myself how to be a moderator, line up the questions, etc.
On the day of the #cmsk12chat we collaborated via Google Messenger, assigned roles, and were ready to get started! During the chat we met teachers, technology integrationists, professors, researchers, and administrators from all parts of IL & NC, as well as someone from Oregon. We also connected with educators from TX, WI, and Canada whom I had met at previous conferences. Even #TPACK researcher
+Matthew Koehler popped in and retweeted some tweets. Without the technology, we could not have had this amazing 1 hour discussion with educators from across the midwest. We learned from each other, shared experiences, and are now following each other through other social medias. On top of all that, it was FUN! I was beaming with energy when the chat ended, and I look forward to participating in more chats in the future. #abovetheline #twitterchats
Please read the
Storify from the #SAMR & #TPACK chat on 9/10/14 if you're interested!
