cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by James G. Milles
Royan Lee recently asked if Twitter is for everyone and I had some thoughts so I posted the following comment:
“No, tweeting isn’t for everyone, but here is another question: If used effectively, would it make someone a better educator?
If the answer is yes, then what?”
There were some great comments on the post, including one talking about the other benefits of using Twitter in a way that we can effectively learn to communicate using different mediums with technology.
But what Royan made me think about is that instead of saying to people that, “My effective use of Twitter makes me a better (teacher, leader, learner, etc.)”, maybe I should be asking, “What makes you a better (teacher, leader, learner)?”
Isn’t that why so many people push Twitter in the first place? Because they believe it makes them better at what they do. Maybe (including me) we need to start asking the question, “what are you doing to become better at _____?”
I think there is a lot to learn from the conversations that we can have with other educators about what makes each of us better at our profession outside of Twitter. Yes, my use of Twitter and blogging (I feel) has really helped me developed in certain areas, but there are lots of other things that have helped me as well. If learning is personalized, we need to find what works for us and makes us better. Honestly, I see it less important that people tweet but EXTREMELY important that people grow and get better. Isn’t that what learning is about?
So I guess that I am asking you, what are the things outside of social media that make you a better teacher, learner, and/or leader? Why?
