How Can Twitter Support Continuous Professional Development?

In this article, I will work on the assumption that you already have a Twitter account and that you follow regularly shared and understood approaches to its use, how you present yourself, such as with a profile, relevant avi (photo to represent yourself) and are following other educators. Many of these are outlined in this superb sketch by a long-time member of my PLN, Simon Johnson.

Ideas for the classroom

One of the clearest ways of making the most of what is available on Twitter from educators has always been the sharing of resources and ideas. Many educators freely share not just ideas for the classroom but also how they’re using them with their learners. Take this idea for example from Ceridwen Eccles (@Teacherglitter on Twitter).

Professional support

I was recently working with Worcester University who had asked me to come and share with their trainees about how you can use social media such as Twitter to support professional learning. To help with this, I asked my PLN to respond to the following question and they certainly responded well. Having access to this wealth of support from educators from around the world is superb and a hallmark of what “EduTwitter” does so well, in supporting others. Check out the responses:

It’s not just these responses either. As a collective, we are stronger when we work together, even if we don’t always agree. Courteous and respectful dialogue should be a cornerstone of our profession and this should also be reflected in the conversations we have when using any social media.

Contextual responses

How many times have you been seeking inspiration or support around a new topic or idea and have gone to Google search and found the results to predominantly be those resources you have to pay for such as those found on the TES?

Twitter for teachers is like a Google search on adrenaline.

When you have a solid professional learning network on Twitter, you have access to ideas, resources and activities that are grounded in a teacher’s pedagogy. These are often supplied and shared contextually and relevant to your needs. You are able to have a dialogue with those you connect with, give them the frames of reference that even the most advanced of algorithms hidden deep within Google search can only begin to fathom, such is the power of a human response compared to that of Machine Learning.

…how amazing is that!?

Professional learning

There are so many professional learning opportunities shared by educators on Twitter. From free conferences such as the LearnLiveUAE conference, I’m organising for 16 October with my co-host on the show, Olly Lewis, to the weekly shows I do on Monday evenings (#LearnLiveUAE) and my other show with Bukky Yusuf  on Thursday evenings (#UKEduStories) that offers professional learning and dialogues every week.

Apologies for the shameless plugs, but there are so many other great opportunities for Continuous Professional Development using Twitter, all you need to do is dig a bit deeper on EduTwitter.

There has been a notable rise since we started in lockdown of online teacher events taking place, far more than ever before.

With educators becoming more confident in presenting and sharing using online tools through times of remote teaching, so there has been a recent explosion in free, high quality, online professional learning shows and events, many borne out of grassroots teacher-led movements. And it’s not just through videos and shows. Through using Twitter you can easily discover some of the best professional learning conversations which we can all be a part of and what’s more, you can ask back and get responses from all the people who are sharing on these wide forms of media. From podcasts, vlogs, conferences and live shows, debates, themed series and more all being shared freely:

• Ollie Lovell’s Reading Room Podcast
• ‘Mind The Gap’ with Tom Sherrington and Emma Turner
• Naylor’s Natter
• BrewEd Isolation
• WomenEd events such as this one written about by Jill Berry

In his article, “The best ideas show up after the ‘dip’“, Walter Vandervelde explains:

If you think brilliant ideas just simply drop out of the sky, you are wrong. A recent scientific study of Brian Lucas and Loran Nordgren shows that the best ideas actually occur only after the ‘dip’. So creativity is far and foremost a matter of persistence.

Finding your tribe

It is interesting that when you look for synonyms for ‘tribe‘, it brings up words such as ‘family‘, ‘society‘ and ‘association‘.

One of the great things about connecting with others using Twitter as an educator is that it connects you to people who share similar values to you and often become your ‘edu-family’.

I have made lifelong friends alongside many ‘colleagues’ in using the platform. I mentioned Simon Johnson at the start of this article as someone I have known for a long time and would class as a friend but, there are so many more as highlighted in this tweet by the ‘Learning Dust‘ team writing up my mentions in our recent interview for their podcast.

A great way I have found to help develop my thinking has been by engaging with those who don’t agree with me.

It is important to note, I think too, that my PLN does not just comprise of people who share just my values. I follow lots of educators who have broad and diverse opinions and thoughts on education. A great way I have found to help develop my thinking has been by engaging with those who don’t agree with me. By engaging with those educators, they have helped to reinforce my core beliefs whilst allowing me to take on new learning and approaches that I might not have otherwise discovered just by listening to similar voices.

And these are some of the unintended consequences when you connect with other educators… Yes, your beliefs about education may be different, but (for the most part) professional discourse and dialogue helps us all.

The pandemic has brought many educators to the platform and brought many of us together in ways that wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the technology. The support networks that have sprung up on Twitter have been huge.

One such initiative that springs to mind is that created by Toria Claire with her ‘TinyVoiceTuesday’ initiative.

‘TinyVoiceTuesday’ is aimed at bringing together like-minded voices of educators who don’t have a large following to call upon to engage and do many of the things that I mention above. The initiative has a simple premise, that by using a ‘follow/follow back’ approach to those who share every Tuesday morning from a tweet that she publishes, brings people together to help them develop their supportive PLN.

Unsurprisingly the initiative has had huge success as you’ll see from today’s example shared by Toria from her account:

Sharing that you need help on Twitter has always, for me, brought superb levels of support, resources, ideas and more. If you need help, ask for it. Twitter is, for me, the best staffroom in the world and its use has hugely helped me throughout my career since I joined.

A word of caution

It would be remiss of me to say that these things are always the case. As with any ‘society’, there are those that would seek to use it for nefarious reasons. It isn’t always as shiny and as ‘lovey-dovey’ as I might make it out to be above.

As any educator who has used Twitter will tell you, it isn’t all a bed of roses. There are spam accounts, those who tweet using anonymous accounts, parody accounts and those who seem to get a kick out of causing a kerfuffle and problems with argumentative approaches or dismissive comments about the things people have shared.

Courteous and respectful dialogue should be a cornerstone of our profession and this should also be reflected in the conversations we have when using any social media.

My best advice in these situations, if you find yourself in one, is to act appropriately. Take a deep breath. Try not to rise to an inappropriate response. Report them through the features of the platform. Block them. Mute their negative comments. Twitter is fantastic for all of the reasons mentioned above, however when someone tries to flame you, remember, a fire requires oxygen in order to grow. Don’t feed these accounts oxygen. Ignore them and move on and if you need or want to, call out to your PLN for advice and support.

This is why as part of my session with Worcester University PGCE students I also took time to mention grassroots organisations that aim to help protect and support educators on the platform when things aren’t as supportive as they could be, such as “The Safe Space“. They aim to take “a stand against inappropriate behaviour towards women on edutwitter. We offer fully confidential listening and support. By women, for women.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this post on Continuous Professional Development using Twitter, I’m aware it’s quite a long one but I hope and trust you find it useful. If you would like to work with me on any of the topics mentioned here or would like me to talk with students on your courses about these powerful networks, please do get in touch via my contact page.