Journal 2: Join the Flock and Enhance Your Twitter Experience (NETS-T I-V)

Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock. Learning and leading with technology, 37(8), 12-14. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-september-october-2011.aspx

Miller, S. M. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and leading with technology, 37(8), 14-17. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-september-october-2011.aspx

In the article “Join the Flock,” Ferguson is inviting you to take advantage of twitter as a tool to get connected with others in your area of education or even make multiple accounts in order to separate your career from your opinionated or recreational news. She breaks the process down for people who are yet realize the potential of a PLN, or a personalized learning network, and she explains how easy and beneficial it is to be immersed in a community that exchanges knowledge for the purpose of professional development.

Miller goes on in her article about how “you will start to include your PLN in your thinking,” and I believe that this is very true. I have been talking about Twitter from the night we were introduced to it, and although I’ve gotten my repugnant responses when I would share my new experience with the world, the people who already used Twitter, or went on to try it agreed about its educational value and can’t see themselves in a world without it. I enjoyed how the article acknowledged that people start out shy and then raise their Twitter voice with confidence once they get the hang of it.

This is tweet-tastic, and now I’m so addicted- how can I stop?

Don’t worry, there are Twitter Limits set in place to ensure you don’t spend all day tweeting.

With all of these things to do online, how will I find time to read all of these tweets and find interesting news to share to keep up with the community?

That’s the beauty of it- the thinking that Miller is talking about becomes reality and soon you will be thinking about how useful a resource is to you and instantly wanting to share it! It almost motivates you to look harder because you’re contributing to your tweeps’ learning too. TweetDeck can simplify your Twitter experience, and don’t forget to put it right into your iGoogle homepage.