After the first day of my integrating technology class this semester, I left with the feeling overwhelmed by excitement to learn new tools and programs with technology in education. Prior to entering my class, I have had no background classes or tutorials with technology integrated into a classroom.
A key topic that we covered in our technology class was establishing our PLN (Professional Learning Network) on Twitter. With first mention of this application use I did have some hesitations. My hesitations stemmed from my lack of familiarity with online applications and networks (this is coming from a person who finally began to actually use her Facebook this year which I created three years ago). Thus, my idea of Twitter consisted of celebrities and news hosts "tweeting" about their lives for everyone in the world to follow.
By the time my first class concluded and I now understood what an asset Twitter is to my PLN, I was embarrassed at my first thoughts about the program. After establishing my Twitter name I began to search for the main people in my future field of education. Thankfully our instructor already had listed some very accomplished individuals to follow on Twitter. I was completely amazed by the amount of people and the tweets that are posted in one day that could help teachers in all fields! One example of a tweet that grabbed my attention was by NMHS_Principal concerning a great tool for history teachers! This link took me to an excellent website that was an archive of countless history topics equipped with lesson plans, handouts, primary documents, videos, and many more multimedia tools for every lesson. After finding this treasure of a website I looked at some other posts by NMHS_Principal and really admired how much time it seems he devotes to finding novel ways of integrating technology in all disciplines through his high school. After perusing around the Twitter network for more people in my field I started following MisterHistory.
After reading his short bio about, “breaking the spell of textbook teaching,” I was hooked! I really appreciated what MisterHistory posts on his Twitter feed. Being a young teacher when I enter the field I think it is really important to not teach history straight from the textbook. Of course, the textbook has a great source of content and knowledge for a solid reference, but reading in a book day in and out will not constantly engage students, which is my ultimate goal. MisterHistory had a great tweet for another teacher to try out this History lesson by a rap song. After following that link I was amazed at how this website had raps for different events in history, which would be a great tool in a classroom!
Overall, my eyes were open after only two hours in my first technology class to how establishing a PLN with Twitter through the internet is extremely helpful and rewarding for both students I will be teaching and myself. Before, my idea of technology was only PowerPoint and normal online tools, but no I am excited to learn more Web 2.0 classroom tools and techniques to add to my repertoire, in hopes to soon use these in a high school classroom.
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I had similar preconceptions that Twitter was mainly used for celebrity gossip, and was likewise awed at how useful it can be for maintaining a network in my profession. I really appreciate how people are using the site to share so much useful information about teaching, and have already found so many great resources through the teachers I'm following.
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