I’ve finally done it and joined Twitter. I have to admit that until last Friday’s ED554 class, I found Twitter extremely annoying. Especially when obnoxious Tweets made their way to the bottom of the TV screen during “The Bachelor” (it’s my hour of guilty pleasure and mindless viewing. Please, we all have one). But now I get it! I have been instantly connected to educators who are Tweeting out valuable resources that will no doubt benefit me.
I followed Scott McLeod after Steven mentioned him in class last Friday. He Tweets A LOT, like every hour. His Tweets are typically always beneficial and no doubt worth the noise, but to a Twitter novice like myself, it is overwhelming to log on and have several Tweets to catch up on. One, however, particularly caught my attention and even deserved a retweet.
Scott Tweeted a link to Pinterest where a user was sharing her favorite iPad learning apps. There are so many great apps! When you first see her boards, you’ll notice a lot of tech accessory boards. Keep scrolling and you’ll see boards for teaching prepositions, voice therapy apps, data collection, measurement, and so many more! How great is this? My first personal learning network inspired me to dive into another. Looks like I’ll be joining Pinterest next!
chaelley 
Don’t think you need to keep up. You will never keep up and might miss something. Many of the people you will follow are retweeted, so then you might catch it another time.
I have joined Scoop.it and Twitter and by far think that Pinterest is the best! Practically speaking, it is a first year teachers dream! I see the benefits of all although I find Scoop.it and Twitter more ‘news worthy” and Pinterest more “practical/hands-on” I would be interested to hear your thoughts!
You may be right, Nicole. I haven’t explored Pinterest for educational purposes yet, but I have found many other useful ideas through it (mostly recipes and photo shoot ideas). I probably should check it out as well!
One of the things that I like about Twitter is how everything is right there when I log in. I don’t need to search for things and worry that my search terms won’t find an exact result. Also, I like how Twitter gives me recommendations of other people to follow based on who I currently follow. Another aspect that I like is that people are sharing a variety of resources! So far I have easily come across some great current articles and resources.
Ultimately, I think that all of the social media networks would be beneficial to my PLN! Right now it’s just about finding the time to take full advantage of them 🙂