Professional Development & Tools
First off, I know many of you are feeling like you are just keeping your head above water maneuvering all the social media sites out there. Some of you have all out surrendered and got out of the pond. I for one, was very reluctant to add another one to my plate, but I kept hearing that if you want to keep up on the latest and greatest in the education ideas/tools/professional development you need to get on Twitter. So I caved in a moment of intense pressure at a conference (telling myself I could always delete it later or never sign on again), but then I discovered they were right. I didn't have to wait for the next teacher's conference to find out about a great new idea or how to use some tech tool. I could comb through resources whenever I wanted. (And to get it I didn't have to sit through any hour long sessions I thought would be revolutionary but turned out to be about something I've already known about for ages. The downside of conferences.) Pretty much everything I share here on the Brainstorm I've found as a result of Twitter or blogs I have discovered by following Twitter rabbit trails. Now, the biggest hurdle is knowing where to start. Here's a great graphic from Faculty eCommons with key educational hashtags that will lead you to key people to follow (if you like things they've posted, follow them and then Twitter will help suggest others like them). Scroll down to find your educaitonal speciality. Looking up those hashtags on Twitter should give you a starting place on Twitter. Give it a shot and see if you don't find a treasure trove of resources and tools too. (Note: To prevent this from becoming just another social media site I personally keep my Twitter strictly professional. No family or casual friends on my Twitter account, just other teachers, librarians, and educational technology people who are sharing good ideas. The ones who are just tweeting about their random run-ins with squirrels or what they had for dinner get deleted.)
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