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Following a few weeks of considerable twitter dialogue, you might be at a point where your account is created—now you’re looking for next steps.  I’m tempted to write another post on WHY we should all continue cultivating our PLNs—but that’s already been done.  I could discuss how twitter allows us to transition from simple consumers of information to active participants, as knowledge creators, with a voice that has the ability to reach educators across the globe—but that’s been already been done.  I could also talk about why we need to share—Derek Sivers has already done that:

Perhaps I could mention that using twitter to build PLNs advocates authentic peer driven learning and professional development, while breaking down silos and reducing learning isolation.  Moreover, that twitter allows visibility of practice, fosters global connectivity, promotes engagement, energizes personal learning, and somehow humanizes a virtual world by providing collegial support in an online environment—but that’s already been done.

The SCH Academy twitter workshops have been successful these past few weeks.  User-ship has grown to point where we have close eighty SCH tweeps—increasing daily.  Click on the SCH Academy Learning Leaders list to start following colleagues, and let’s continue building the community.  If you don’t yet have an account—create one.  Below is a link to the a short presentation that will get you started in minutes…briefly explaining hashtags, Tweetdeck/Hootsuite, what educators should and should not be tweeting about and more.

#SCH Academy Twitter Workshop

Given that I stayed away from re-stating the various benefits of twitter in this post (notice a hint of sarcasm), I’d like to move along to potential opportunities for you to begin using twitter in your classroom.  The folks at Online Universities provide us with:

60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom

Another terrific resource is a collaborative effort between Edudemic and Teachthought where they produce the following spectrum for using Twitter in the classroom.

It is roughly structured to increase in complexity from left to right:

Watch, which is passive.

Talk, this adds interaction.

Produce, which implies an even greater interaction between an audience, a purpose, and a media design–in this case, using twitter to actually produce something original.

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Thanks for reading…Tweet on folks!