Twitterpated?

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post, this week my post will be focusing on the popular social media networking app called Twitter. Twitter is well known for its celebrity usage and even connecting/replying to some of your favourite celebrities. However, that is not the focus of todays post, rather we will be exploring the ideas and ways that Twitter as a platform can be beneficial to education students/teachers/and used as a professional tool!

At the beginning of January 2021 I began an Educational Technologies course through my university as part of my journey to becoming an elementary school teacher. Before taking this course I did not have a Twitter account, I knew about the app and how it worked but I did not find myself in need to create an account myself. Ed Tech however had us create our own accounts to help us stay connected and see the importance of surrounding ourselves with others in class, especially in a time where the closest we get to having a real conversation is through zoom once a week. Through my account I have learned how to connect with fellow peers, participated in a #SaskEdChat, posted my own tweets/links, responded to others within my class, and post links to each of my blog posts!

One of my absolute favourite parts about using Twitter is posting articles that I find. I find educational articles based on elementary education, mental health, ways to use technology in the classroom, and other education tips and tricks that I would be happy to incorporate into my own classroom in the future. Most of the resources that I share I wish my teachers would have used in the classroom to benefit us as students. Once I tweet the links to the articles with the hashtag #EDTC300 other students in the same class, along with the professors, are able to not only read the articles but also reply to my tweets with their personal opinions on the topics and how they feel towards using the shared strategies as well. In about a year (hopefully) I will be working in an elementary school and I am looking forward to using my Twitter account to connect with other teachers both in Saskatchewan and Canada as it will be beneficial to see their classroom adventures and preferred techniques.

Last week I took part in a #SaskEdChat on Twitter, viewing the participation in a professional developmental experience I feel as though it benefitted me widely. After being able to reflect on the experience I found myself thinking hard about the answers to my questions, while also having fun and putting honesty behind my answers as well. Not only students from my course took part, but teachers and students from other classes took part. This was useful to me as I was able to see answers from all walks of life and all levels of professionalism. Each tweet sent into the #SaskEdChat was eye opening and allowed me to expand my own answers and even “heart” tweets that I wanted to look back on later. I highly enjoyed it and plan on joining again next week as a new topic is introduced and explored in depth.

I hope that you all enjoyed today blog post, and I hope to see you all back again to read my next one! Stay warm out there, spring is coming!