Running seems to give me inspiration, clear my mind, and inspire new ideas. Knowing that Twitter has recently created an option to share videos up to 30 seconds, I thought about creating a new project to get people to share ideas and things that they are doing, going beyond the 140 characters.
What I thought of is the idea of #EDUin30; an opportunity to not only share practices in a different format, but to also connect more to the educational community. Here is the introductory video:
Going to try a new project call #EDUin30. Check out the video. pic.twitter.com/IWFdzORfr9
— George Couros (@gcouros) March 7, 2015
To be honest, it felt a little uncomfortable to share myself in a video. That was actually kind of the point. To stretch myself in this format as well. So I asked the question for week one, “what is a practice that you would like to share with others?” To model what I seek, I shared the question and an answer of my own.
Week 1: Talk about one great idea in your classroom in 30 seconds or less. #EDUin30 pic.twitter.com/YwfahJg7z4 — George Couros (@gcouros) March 7, 2015
Tweaking the project, I thought it would be great to use the initial hashtag of #EDUin30 in all of these tweets, but to also add a hashtag specific to the week’s question. So for week one, it is #EDUin30w1 (next week it will be #EDUin30w2, and so on). Since you are not sharing many characters, two hashtags should work fine. Here I am explaining that process.
What is one practice in your classroom that you would like to share? #EDUin30 #EDUin30w1 pic.twitter.com/IteG4j8job
— George Couros (@gcouros) March 7, 2015
So why do this? First of all, I think it is imperative that we make reflection a part of our work as educators. Thinking and processing thoughts on what we can do will only make us better, and everyone has 30 seconds in their life to share a quick reflection. The next reason is that we need to model growth. I see a lot of people complain that other’s don’t move fast enough, yet are we ourselves continuing to push our growth and learning? This new addition to the medium means there are more opportunities of how we can learn from one another. My hope is that educators partake in this for their own learning, and then think of ways that they can do this type of reflection with their kids. If you want to become a master teacher, you have to become a master learner. This means going out of your comfort zone. The final reason is the most important one to me. It is easy to forget there is a person behind the avatar, and using video gets you to hear voices, see faces, and get to know people on a different level. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video? This can connect us in different ways. It was nice to see other people starting to share right away. I was able to hear great ideas, but get to see them as well. Here is one from Kevin Zahner:
Using inquiry for student-led reading guides #EDUin30 #EDUin30w1 pic.twitter.com/ur6Ks9WyDx
— Kevin Zahner (@ZahnerHistory) March 7, 2015
And another from Jeff Dahl:
#eduin30 #eduin30w1 @Snagit @wevideo @ThingLink @GoAnimate pic.twitter.com/mcOcMSNBf0
— Jeff Dahl (@jdahlcroslex) March 7, 2015
It was great to hear not only their ideas, but their voices. It is a nice way to better know our educator community.
So for the next few weeks, I am going to share a question to the #EDUin30 hashtag on the weekends. This question will be for the week, and you can share when you have the opportunity. You can also see others as well by following the hashtag. I would love for people to partake, hear actions and perspectives, but also would love to get your ideas for questions that talk about actions.
It would be great if you could share this idea with others so we can learn from each other.
Update
Tweets like this are why I wanted to do the project.
@ZahnerHistory @gcouros how good is that. 30 seconds, great idea, will be used in my Aussie classroom tomorrow!
— Phil Rienecker (@rennies46) March 7, 2015
Please take time to check out the first week of responses and add your own at #EDUin30w1.
