Journal 2

Join The Flock

McClintock, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience.. (8 ed., Vol. 37, pp. 14-16). International Society for Technology in Education.Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&search_term=JOIN THE FLOCK&search_term=JOIN THE FLOCK

Before this class, I was not very clear on what Twitter was or the purpose for it. I thought it was just another social network website where you can read about celebrity's social lives and conversations. And, having a facebook, I decided I didn't need another social account to maintain. I was also hesitant to start something new because I was intimidated with having to figure out a whole new network style, especially when I am slow to catch on to new technology. But, after a few weeks of this course and reading the informative "Join the Flock" article, I realized that Twitter is much more than a communication method. I learned that it can actually be very useful professionally as well as socially. It also is not difficult at all because the information that interests you appears automatically without having to do anything! I learned that Twitter is a great resource for teachers to contact other educators and talk about and share effective lesson plans, new helpful sources and ideas, and even just to seek advice. I now realize that Twitter is more than just another method for communication, but it also acts a source to learn and educate yourself in whatever subject you chose to "follow".

Question: The article showed us that twitter can be useful for teachers for finding resources from other teachers. How can Twitter be helpful for teachers in other ways than finding resources for lesson plans?

Answer: Following teachers can also be helpful because you can seek advice about the teaching experience. With the budget cuts effecting the education system, teachers are struggling all over the nation. So, being able to communicate successful ideas and methods of adapting to the new teaching environment, it could help to create an outlet to the difficult system.

Enhance Your Twitter Experience

McClintock Miller, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and Leading With Technology, 37(8), 14-17

I felt like the "Enhance Your Twitter Experience" article was a much more hands on, learn as you go approach to new Twitter users. The "Twitter Twerminology" section was my personal favorite because it was a quick and helpful guide to learn about the concepts and lingo of Twitter. Being a new "tweeter" myself, I found it to be very easy to understand the capabilities of Twitter and how to use them. I learned how to search already established hashtags and how to retweet other posts to all of my followers. Also, I learned how to make certain lists of my followers and how to search through other user's lists by using my Tweetdeck. After learning about Tweetdeck, I feel like I will be able to use this a lot in order to find other teachers or educators to follow so I will be able to get more information and insight into new teaching resources. I liked how motivated the author was to spread the idea of twitter and encourage that everyone can benefit from it because I was hesitant at first and now I am grateful that I got a chance to learn and share information by being involved in Twitter.

Question: Twitter sounds like a very useful tool, but it sounds like it takes a lot of effort to  post information for other teachers to use as well as look for sources that others have posted. How much time do you have to invest in Twitter to maintain a useful page?

Answer: Twitter makes things easy so when you need to look for new sources, everything is laid out for you, so it does not take much time at all. Also, posting tweets is easy also so it is not time consuming. You can spend as much time or as little time as you need.

NETS-5