Written by Becoming #Twitterate
(well just beginning anyway…)
I had two motivations in joining #Cohort21. The first goal was to force myself to go for a proper swim, after only just dipping my toes, into the world of social media as my professional self.
** My second motivation was to learn some new ways that I could leverage technology to meet some specific goals in the running of my library program. More on goal #2 in my next blog post! **
How’s the water?
It has been fabulous to have exposure to a number of possibilities in terms of social media tools (thanks @jmedved @gnichols, @lesmcbeth, & more)! In the past weeks, I have focussed my efforts on producing content on Twitter. I’m proud to say that I have tweeted 29 times since I’ve started #Cohort21!
Pros of my Twitter experiment so far:
- pushed me complete a few projects
- allowed me to give credit and praise to colleagues and students
- I’ve engage in conversations with librarians who are outside my current local network
- shared best practice ideas
- boosted collegial feeling between the teacher-librarians that I don’t get to connect with otherwise
- shared what I am going with our parents community (I know this because parents have ‘liked’ my tweets and our school Twitter account @montcrest has ‘retweeted’ my tweets)
Cons of my Twitter experiment so far:
- I can get sucked into a time-wasting vortex
- sometimes come away feeling woefully inadequate
Goals:
- find ways to manage, and store for later retrieval, the ideas that I garner via Twitter
- continue to build on my ability to use self-talk to manage my expectations of myself
- start to explore some ways of leveraging the potential of Twitter with my middle-grade students
Suggestions?
@sneesham I’ve noticed your increase Twitter presence and I so proud of you! It makes me want to get out there more myself. It’s so nice that you are able to get quick feedback that people are noticing your tweets (through likes). I think part of my hesitation with Twitter is not really knowing who my audience is/could be and wondering if people will care about what I have to tweet. And if I don’t get enough “likes” then why I am doing it?
To answer one of your questions – about storing ideas for later – @gnichols introduced me to Google Keep. It’s like a sticky-note app that you can organize your lists of things to do. I’ll show it to ya tomorrow 🙂
Thanks, @nbrooksbank! I’m looking forward to getting a wee demo of Google Keep – I’ve heard of it but not used it before.
And in terms of this thought you put forward, “And if I don’t get enough “likes” then why I am doing it?” I do have to say that my modest number of 29 tweets has lets to lots of conversations with parents, and most intriguingly perhaps for your action plan, lots of conversations with other staff in my school that I don’t always work so closely with. It seems Tweeting about what’s going on in the library may be a good tool for paving a way to more collaboration!
@sspencer is a Google Keep guru you should totally connect with her over it.
I love this blog Sacha!! I knew we were kindred spirits,as I feel the exact same way. I am actually a Twitter convert now (and prefer it over blogging).
I just remember the Twitter metaphor brought up at our first f2f session: Twitter is like a water fountain; go to it when you want to see or share ideas but it is extremely difficult to stay on top of everything in the twitterverse (too expansive).
I look forward to reading some of the suggestions on how you can leverage Twitter with your middle-grade students.
Leslie (@leslieleys1)
PS – You are far from inadequate!
Hi Leslie (@leslieleys1),
Thank you for those kind words, Leslie!
I, too, kept thinking about that Twitter metaphor whereby the Twitter feed is like a rushing waterfall and I stick my little dixie cup in 🙂
Sacha
Yay, @sneesham!
Glad you have found your way into the Twitterverse, it truly can open doors with great connections and learning. I agree that it can also be a vortex of time wasting. I love that you have found so many ways to expand your networking. Using Twitter to expand your PLC can work wonders and I am excited that you have connected to librarians outside your local network.
I remember chatting with someone, I think it was @acaplan, saying that he is absolutely ruthless with his ‘likes’ on Twitter, only liking the tweets that were relevant and useful. You have the ability to go back and look at all the tweets that you have ‘liked’ and this can be a great strategy for short-term storage. Curating ‘Lists’ can also be a good option when using Tweetdeck.
I have attempted using Twitter with my grade 11/12s – they are not super excited about it as other ‘social media’ is more appealing. I tried to explain the ‘professional’ side of it and some grabbed on – most could not connect with Twitter, stating that it was for old people. This made me laugh. Let me know how it goes with the middle-grade class – perhaps setting up a twitter account for your class and using it to reach out to people that they could relate to or gain new insights from.
Happy exploring! See you tomorrow.
Tim
I love seeing people get into Twitter, all your pros I agree with 100%. Especially how it allows you to engage with people you may never have had a chance to meet or speak to otherwise.
I have had the same struggles as you in regards to storage. Especially articles that I know i want to archive for later. One feature I have been using more often in the past year is many articles have the option to send via email. If it is an article that I want to read later or I want to archive to use I email it to myself and then put that email in my “Twitter folder” the next time I go into my mail. I like this because it doesn’t take a lot of time and I now have a folder that is my treasure trove of articles that I can share with other faculty who may be looking for something on the topic or use it myself. This method doesn’t work for everything, but it has helped me a lot.
I hope you continue to see the benefits of Twitter and I am happy to help answer any questions you may have at Friday’s F2F!
Cheers,
Tracy
Way to go @sneesham !! Small steps lead to great things!
Ideas for you to pursue
1) Use Tweetdeck and only follow hash tags and people you really care about.
2) Consider following some library specific hashtags – # librarychat http://www.techsoupforlibraries.org/blog/dive-into-the-world-of-library-hashtags
3) It has taken me a while but I have tried to encourage the York School staff to tweet and celebrate each other. We all tweet under #yorklearns
You could consider #MSlearns or #montcrestlearns or #montcrestreads
This is exciting!
@sneesham Looking forward to catching up next Friday!
As we look towards the end would you mind updating your C21 blog profile with a picture. Include a real one or a bitmoji (your choice) but it is a great way for everyone to remember faces and names.