Twitter? Surely, you can't be serious.

I am serious... and stop calling me Shirley!

Twitter is not what you may think it is. While you could get constant updates about what your favourite celebrity is having for lunch or what new music they're listening to, Twitter has evolved into an important educational tool that has many potential benefits for teachers and students. Not sure what Twitter is? Watch this video.

Today, I'll focus on the benefits of using Twitter as a part of your PLN. As a networking tool, Twitter helps you connect with educational experts across the globe. By "following" these experts, you can get real-time updates featuring things like new websites, blog posts or thought provoking comments. For me, Twitter has given the greatest return in terms of learning and professional development over any conference, workshop, website or program. I can directly pose a question to a number of educational experts in technology and receive a response within hours, sometimes minutes.

If you were to follow and be followed by colleagues in your district, Twitter could be an effective option for you to get resources to one another or have professional conversations. These resources and conversations could be taken further by connecting with educators from around the world, as you extend your PLN beyond your geographic location.

Give it a try and see what you think. Sign up for a Twitter account here. Search for my username: cunningandy. Follow me and receive my tweets. Take a look at the people I follow and choose to follow one or two of them. When you're ready to learn more, check out this website on twitter etiquette and twitter terminology (pay special attention to hashtags).

Check out the presentation below for more information on how to use Twitter as a professional development tool:


Twitter for Teachers- a Professional Development Tool