You see, I was first inundated with Twitter by Alan November (@globalearner) several years ago at a Texas ASCD (@txascd) conference. We communicated via the stream for several days and I returned to my day job, ready to offer all the fabulous resources I was gaining from others in a professional outlet. After discussion with "the powers that be", it was determined that I could set-up a Retweet feed tied to a work Twitter account. My personal account could do all the "Following". (Thank the Lord for Hootsuite!) Being new to the social media land (I have refused the Facebook and stand by my decision), I became quite adept at the "lurker" mentality and absorbed resources like a sponge. (Twitter is hands-down my favorite PD outlet to date.) Suffering from the "newby" approach of "please don't follow me, I might not have a clue what to tweet" coupled with the educator "protect-our-kids-by-filtering-everything mentality" left me with an urgent sense to protect my account.
Haven't thought about it much sense...
Until today, when our @etmooc webinar reminded me that the point of professional Twitter truly becomes moot without an open, free-flowing stream of thoughts, ideas, and networking. I may have to start including RT or MT before everything I tweet, since I honestly believe "there is nothing new under the sun." If I don't, please know that I'm not assuming original thought, I'm merely the one with the thought at the time.
So welcome, Follow Me... I'll Follow You!
Your turn...
Let's CommuniCATE!
Christy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing about the importance of "opening up" using Twitter. You have articulated exactly the way I felt when I first started to use Twitter...and what I think many feel- similar to the "please don't ask me to stand in front of the class" feeling students have. I was also excited to see you are a consultant...I have a similar position and hope to be able to learn from you.:).and share as well!
Your post is brilliant in how it reflects the concerns so many of us have had - thanks for sharing. I love your energy and positivity. Exciting!
ReplyDeleteHi Christy
ReplyDeleteFollowing and I can understand why some choose to have locked accounts but it can cause problems if you are having conversations with several people and included all usernames in the tweet. Those who aren't being followed by the protected account don't get your responses.
Good luck with the etmooc
I like the look of your blog...and I can hear your voice in what you write!
ReplyDelete