Special Twitter Message

On Monday, I made my 1000th twit, or it is tweet? Anyway, I left my 1000th entry on Twitter. I am not sure what this makes me. A very shallow person who lives life through 140 characters or less? Someone who has a lot to say about almost nothing? I guy who enjoys the weak ties to other people in a very non committed way? Maybe I am a little of all of these things, or maybe none of them. I don’t know.

I like Twitter a lot. I really feel connected to others in a way that I have never been before. My own personal world is very small. I have a great family and a great job. That is my circle. I rarely go out for any social experiences. I don't belong to any groups, and the number of real life friends I have is small. I don't think I consciously made a choice for this to happen, it is simply the way your personal reality becomes when you settle down and start a family.

Twitter has allowed me to expand my social circle in a way that I had not imagined before my first Twit. Twitter has become important to me personally and professionally. My day is not complete unless I have checked it 20- 30 times and made at least 10 good entries. So I have developed my own way of seeing the proper use of Twitter. I try to not be angry or upset a lot on Twitter. It happens, but I do try to limit it. Everyone thinks it is funny when you lose it over something stupid like not being able to make your own Mac and Cheese, but no one wants a constant barrage of negativity.

I think it is only polite that if someone follows you that you take the time to check them out and follow them back. Unless they are some front for spam, or they are mindless twitterers who post the top 100 mundane things they do each day. I like a wide variety of things and love to hear differing points of view. I don't want to hear people rant, or see the ugliness out there. I can block users that I simply don't approve of, but if for some reason, they are trying for a world record of peop to follow, I'll keep them but just not return the follow. That is my choice. I am currently following 100 people and being followed by 84. I would like the numbers to be even, but it is ok this way, I don't worry about the numbers. I think the give and take is much more important.

I like it when people share ideas, links, and cool things on the web. I like to share back when someone needs help, or maybe a laugh. This is the exchange that makes Twitter feel like a community and a conversation. This is what attracted me.

I don't like it when people preach from the mountain top. I don't want to follow people who don't think that I am good enough to hear from. I don't believe that is what the new social web is all about. If I want to be treated that way, I can just watch TV. There are plenty of people on TV who will be happy to talk down to me.

The other day one of my fellow Twitter friends shared a post from David Jakes called, Tragedy of the Commons. Mr. Jakes’ post upset me very much, but even so, I refuse to comment on his blog. I have even waited to respond for six days because it has bothered me so much. This is the part that summed up the entire post for me-

"In my opinion, Twitter really has also changed how some people interact, and not in a positive way. When did the defacto standard greeting at a conference become “Hi, I follow you on Twitter.” How about “Good Morning?” Then, “But you don’t follow me.” Gee, sorry, not my responsibility…"

I had never heard of Mr. Jakes before I read this blog entry, but the post bothers me because it seems that this man is making a living being some sort of education and technology guru. He has 921 followers on Twitter and only 78 are important enough for him to follow in return, and with the statement above, it really seems to me that he simply does not care enough to fake concern for the people who probably help to put food on his table. He comes across as an educational technology elitist. I hope that is not really the way he is because I don't think that is the type of person who should be influencing others.

If I was following him, which I am not, and never will now, I would block him. I know he wouldn't care, because I am nobody. I am unimportant in the world of instructional technology, or anywhere else really. But that's ok, my dog likes me. If he can disregard us nobody Twitterers, I can certainly return the favor. I might be throwing out lots of good stuff with the one bad thing I came across, but I will take that chance.

There are plenty of other people who can at least pay me the compliment of faking that I could be important to them. Will Richardson passed along an article that I sent him. That one small thing made me feel pretty good. Sylvia Martinez and I actually had a conversation once when she responded to my blog. I thought that was really cool. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is someone that I have worked with, well I should clarify, we have held the same position (computer resource specialist) in the same school division, we have talked, and she has always been nice to me. The point here is that maybe I am a nobody to these other educational technology leaders, but at least they have the manners enough to not come right out and say it.

Who knows, maybe this was just Mr. Jakes plan to drum up conversation on his blog. If so, maybe it worked in the short term. He has 60 responses to this one blog entry. Will this increase his following? Not with this one little nobody. I really don't need anyone to poke me with a stick and point out that I don’t matter. That is simply not the positive experience I am looking for in life.

Don't worry Mr. Jakes, if I ever have the opportunity to ever meet you, I will not say, "Hi, I follow you on Twitter. But you don’t follow me.”

But I will say, Good day to you, Sir!

Something New and Fun

I am always excited about trying new things with my students. The introduction of something new expands the possibilities of what can be done. My principal has become interested in using blogging with students. I am all over this idea!

Obviously, I have been playing with this blog since August, and it has become very important to me. This blog is more of a personal experience kind of thing, like a journal. I treat it this way because I was afraid to limit myself to a single topic. I didn't want to lose interest. While I get very excited if someone comments, I am not sure if I am motivated by what others think. Do I do this for selfish reasons, or is it an attempt to share with others? Can it be both? That is not important now, this entry is about the school project.

The new school blog must be more focused. It needs to have an educational point to its existence and it must have participation to be meaningful. Having played with this blog, I have a better idea of how to set a school blog up and gear it to meet a specific goal. I created a test blog site for my school. I did it as an exploration of the available tools, and to show some of my staff the possiblities of a how a blog could be used to start a conversation. This idea can then be used to help student's reading comprehension and writing abilities.

Edublogs has some great features but it is super slow. Learnerblogs is from Edublogs with the same features, but it is faster. So, this site will be the future home of my school's blog. Unless something better presents itself. I really am not sure exactly which direction the blog will take. Right now I have the idea if it being a writing prompt activity. Pictures, science stories and perhaps some literature will be weaved together to give students the change to put their thoughts in writing and interact in a new way.

I hope that this is just the beginning. There is still so much more out there that kids can jump right into. Podcasting and vodcasting are two that I want to explore asap. Not for myself, but for my students. They need to find their voice and where they can fit into the conversation. Everyone has something to share, they just may not know how to share it.

Passion

This week I am going to teach a group of teachers about blogs and wikis. I am very excited about this opportunity because right now it is a passion of mine. I know these technologies are not new, but in many ways they are new to me. It wasn't always this way, I always thought, why do I want to do this? I don't need this blog and wiki stuff as a part of my technology tool list.

But, I was wrong. It is hard for many people to admit when they are wrong. It is not particularly easy for me, but I have found that if I don't admit it, I can't put it behind me and move on. I think this is an important idea because I am not that much different from anyone else who has ever asked, why do this new thing? The question should always be, why NOT do this new thing? When I was younger, that type of thinking always got me into trouble. Hopefully, now I can control my questioning techniques to make the, "Why not?" question a positive experience.

I read an article this weekend about finding your passions. I strongly believe that everyone must have a passion. For me, things change rapidly. My family is a constant passion in my life, but I often need other things to make living with me bearable. When I don't have some sort of side project, I literately feel like something is missing.

Recently, I created a King Tut thing for 2nd grade, and a Lorax debate for 3rd. I loved it! I felt like I was contributing something, I was modeling the type of thing I want my teachers to try, and I had a chance to be creative. The only problem is that after these projects are completed, I am looking for another distraction. Something I can be passionate about.

Along comes this blogs and wiki class. I really am excited. I love my blog and think that blogs can have great value for just about any class (maybe not this particular blog, but I see the potentional). I think wikis are a great collaboration tool and I recently did a research activity with all of my fifth grade students using a wiki as a group recording page. While you may not see the best example of student writing ever, you will see a collaborative effort of almost 200 students who were forced to adapt quickly to get anything on the page at all. They had to talk to each other and plan how they were going to do the project, they had to research information, decide who was going to input the info on the the wiki page and they had about 30 minutes to make it happen. There was some seriously valuable learning going on. After the activity, many students came up to me and asked me if they could work on it outside of computer lab time. I was like, "Yes!"- to the question, and to the idea that they wanted to extend learning outside of the normal confines of learning. I was impressed. They did all the work, but I got a chance to be the finger pointing the way.

I think some of the greatest things that human beings have ever created came about as a group of people set to work with one focus in mind. They shared, they collaborated- this is what makes blogs and wikis so wonderful. The chance to be a part of something bigger than anything you alone could achieve.

I believe that you must find the passion in life. It is there waiting for you to discover it. Never question why you should do something, say, "Why not!" Give something new a try. You never know where it will take you. Maybe you will find that piece of something that fills your empty space.