Being that I’m no longer presenting on Twitter, I wanted to share some of the resources/ideas that I’d organized.  Nothing major, just some brief thoughts.

When you wonder what a student can do, please take a look at this student from Kitsilano.  He’s 11 years old, and uses Twitter to post and connect with chefs.  He’s cooked on television with chef Vikram Vij, and has connected deeply into the local food scene.  Liam goes by the handle of @LittleLocovore on Twitter and is well worth the follow.

I love Chris Hadfield.  Even upon his return to Earth I find myself enjoying his exploits.  He has a book coming out in a few months, and I’m looking forward to reading it.  If you don’t follow him, you should.  You won’t regret it.  This picture is what I try to be as a teacher – that focused on giving a child my attention.  Love.

This will be mentioned in my presentation, but it’s worth repeating.  If you’re going to use Twitter, buy a client of some kind to manage it.  I love Tweetbot – I use it on my iPad to organize and keep me sorted.  I’ve created lists for education, food trucks, and more.  You can create lists for your classes, and have the students do the curation.  I find the timeline overwhelming, and the lists sort it for me.  As well, it does previews of all pictures and videos so that you can see them before you open them.  The regular Twitter program for the iPad had issues with instagram and other picture storage locations.  Yay for Tweetbot!

Twitter can be used to make connections that you may never have thought possible.  During the London Olympics, I had several conversations with a BBC sports reporter on topics ranging from Justin Bieber to Olympic torches blowing out during relays (my mom’s went out!).  I recently inspired entrepreneur and former Dragon W. Brett Wilson with an idea to make pants into a shirt (don’t ask!).  A comment of mine on a picture made someone working at The Globe (yes, THE Globe in London!!) chortle “with such alarming heartiness the office startled in fright.”  When attending a concert and wondering why opera singer Measha Bruggergosman wasn’t in attendance (had been scheduled to do so), I posted that question on Twitter.  She replied.  Talk about access to a primary source!

You can also gain access to an audience far greater than you can within the classroom.  During the London Olympics, the main British tourism organization sent a picture of mine out to all of their followers.  All 125,000+ of them.  That was a bit more than my usual audience of around 15.

I held off on Twitter, assuming it was another fad, but am now very glad I joined the conversation.

@BrianneMelnyk

Follow