Building your Network #hashtag

When Twitter first was released, I thought it was going to be a short-lived fad that burned out after a few months.  Thirteen years later, Twitter is more alive than ever. Our president, like him or dislike him, uses Twitter daily and his Tweets are extremely impactful.

In class, Jeff talked about creating a network on social media that you can use as a classroom resource. I’ve never used twitter myself, but what if I’m missing out? Our goal as teachers should be to provide the best education possible for students. That means they need to be engaged and actively involved in the learning environment. Technology can provide culturally valuable experiences. With the simple use of a hashtag on Twitter, Jeff was able to connect his class with a teacher from the Middle East. Thinking back on my education, I never had an experience that came close to that. I remember learning about other cultures, but that was about it. We learned in a way that wasn’t memorable.

For me, social media has always been an annoying thing that I begrudgingly use to remember birthdays and keep up with friends who live in different cities. I want to shift my perspective and start seeing social media as a powerful networking tool instead of an annoying distraction. Many students don’t get the chance to travel abroad during their younger years and the majority of their knowledge of other cultures comes from movies and television shows. If I can connect with teachers from foreign countries who are willing to take 20 minutes and answer questions on a Skype call with my class, that would go a long way in terms of meaningful education. Students who are genuinely interested in what they are learning will behave better. We’ve talked a lot about that in our “Differentiated Instruction” class. Also, students learn much better when they like and trust the teacher. Providing these unique experiences for students will help them trust me and enjoy the class. I don’t need to go into detail about why improving behavior will positively impact the learning environment; that’s pretty obvious.

So what can we take away from my ramblings? Should we all go out and download Twitter? Sure, that seems like a good place to start. If we start building our network now, we’ll be able to increase our connections every year and be able to provide unique cultural experiences for our students. We don’t have to tweet eight times a day like our President, but having a social media presence can be a great source of connection.