From Time-Wasting Toy to Professional Learning Network: My Experience with Twitter

"I have returned... to Twitter. #historyjoke" - Gen. Douglas MacArthur, liberally paraphrased.

Confession time: the Twitter account I created for my Technology in Education course is not my first foray into the world of followers, hashtags, and URL shorteners. I created my first Twitter account during my final year as an undergraduate in 2010. I had previously been critical of the growing phenomenon, often remarking that I didn't need to inform the entire wired world if I was enjoying my sandwich. Things changed when I started looking for ways to enhance and support my first blog, and I stopped giving Twitter the cold shoulder. Introductions were made, flirting started, and within weeks a relationship had bloomed. We were even texting one another several times a day.

So why did I deactivate my first Twitter account? Why did this happy boy-meets-social-media-tool story turn sour? The answer is that I wasn't using it properly, or at least not in a way that really benefited me. I thought aggregating my interests in news, politics, culture, sports, music, and comedy in one place made sense; instead, what I got was something resembling sensory overload. The best I can describe it is as hearing everything, but not being able to listen to anything very well. It's also worth noting the role that first Twitter account played in my personal, social life. I'll be the first one to sing the praises of social media as a way to maintain and expand one's social circle (a multiple for everyone's Dunbar number, but that's a blog post for another day!). However, there's also something to be said for having a network that's purely, well, professional. The bottom line is that for me, Twitter became a distraction, not a resource. We decided to see other people... until my Tech in Ed class set us up for unexpected reunion.

Getting reacquainted with Twitter was bumpy at first, which you might expect after about a year of separation. I had days of technical difficulties trying to register a new account - after walking away, I should've known my calls weren't going to be returned right away. I also had forgotten some of the little details that had become second nature during our relationship. My first tweet on the new account, about the Library of Congress's American Memory collection, was conspicuously lacking a link to the site. As it turned out, though, we weren't completely estranged. After following a few accounts discussed in class or mentioned on our course's Wikispace, I started discovering new components of my Professional Learning Network with increasing speed. Following familiar organizations (Edutopia, Khan Academy) and education personalities (Alfie Kohn, Deborah Meier) led to me a host of new (and exciting) ones, including the subject of my PLN review assignment: Primary Source Nexus.

It's hard for me to overstate just how much useful information this site makes available to teachers - particularly social studies teachers. A branch of the "Teaching with Primary Sources" initiative by the Barat Foundation and the Library of Congress (no wonder I gravitated to it!), PSN is more than just a large collection of those sources. The home page is designed very clearly, and navigates to sections on Resources, Professional Development, and the TPS and LoC mothership sites. Under Resources, "Primary Source Picks" is an almanac-style offering in which every weekday highlights a source with a historical connection to that day (today's post features the quilting work of Harriet Powers, who was born on October 29, 1837). "Teaching and Learning" is even more comprehensive, with sample projects using primary sources available for lesson plan integration. The page is updated weekly, and includes almost everything a social studies teacher could ask for: learning objectives, relevant Common Core standards, necessary materials, and guidelines for instruction and display. I'd use these samples more as templates than ready-made lessons, but the benefits for planning and practice are pretty apparent. Everything here is very much a worth a look, but if you're just looking to get a glance at content, I'd recommend the "Featured Images" and "Themed Link Sets."

As rich and user-friendly as the PSN site proper is, its Twitter profile makes for an excellent portal. Adding it to my "Following" list gets me regular (i.e., several times per day) updates about new posts or retweeted info from other history education feeds. It was through the PSN Twitter page that I found this article from the LoC Teachers page, in which a former middle school teacher recalls her use of mock election projects to teach students about voting. The author, Meg Steele, includes nine Library of Congress primary sources on designing, casting, and counting election ballots, as well as sample questions that could inform lesson construction and discussions with students. Reflecting on the mock elections she held in her classroom, Ms. Steele writes,

...nothing engaged them more than the task of designing the actual ballot. Though it only had two candidates, it took an entire class period plus homework. The discussion they had was rich—about fairness, visual literacy, communication. Making decisions required deliberation, compromise and focus.

It would be hard to ask for much more as a social studies teacher interested in helping my students develop as critical thinkers and informed citizens. The upcoming presidential election made this article especially intriguing, but I think the general principles could apply to any real-world process for which primary sources would support inquiry and practice. Kudos to Primary Source Network for helping Ms. Steele share her ideas and experience!

Since I've started following about 10 new accounts while writing this blog entry, I think it's safe to say that Twitter and I are back together. I think this new commitment, however, is a more mature one. As with any relationship, it's a good idea to have defined, positive goals for growth when using Twitter as a professional tool. In the short term, I'd like to be able to learn from the people and organizations I follow, and harvest ideas from the intellectual soil there. Over time, I hope to contribute my own products and experiences, and give as much as I get. Far from just letting me know if my fellow teachers are enjoying their sandwiches, Twitter as a PLN offers considerable concrete (lesson templates, primary sources, etc.) and philosophical (other educators' thoughts on ethics, pedagogy, and beyond) benefits to my development as an educator.

Setting the "Stage" for Tech Integration

Our class discussion on the "Stages of Technology Integration" gave me a new framework for thinking about my own approach to using technology in my teaching practice. Based on the findings of an evaluation study by Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (more on the ACOT study here, thanks to Professor Zumpano for the link), these stages are an effective way of imagining the breadth and depth of tech integration in the classroom, and for gauging the effectiveness thereof.

The first stage on the continuum ("Entry") is where the teacher is aware of technology and its uses, but does not take advantage of it. The Entry-level teacher's wider view of education does not allow for the possibility that tech can be a tool for improved teaching; he or she is a skeptic on the subject, and would see little value in receiving training on technology use. This was the easiest stage for me, and I progressed through it rather quickly. My generation, the so-called "Millennials," may be old enough to remember things like dial-up Internet connections (can't wait to tell my students about that one in 20 years) and primitive classroom tech, but we also grew up alongside the web and emerging social media. If there was a learning curve, it was a small one. Technology was already being well-integrated by my teachers by the time I finished high school, so as a teaching candidate, I think I've always seen it as having value, however amorphous that value might be.

Stage Two ("Adoption") is the period in which the teacher moves past their initial skepticism and begins modest technology integration; they make use of a handful of tools familiar to them, but mostly for enhanced production rather than teaching and learning. While this teacher sees promise in educational technology, they would likely still be less than entirely confident in their own mastery of it. Therefore, an Adoption-level teacher limits their students' tech use because of their own issues with manipulation and troubleshooting - technology is still something best left to a designated tech expert. I've long been open to adopting technology, but due to a lack of practical teaching experience, I can only say I truly entered this stage when I started backing up my tutoring sessions with some tech here and there. This has meant small things, like using digital testing or PowerPoint/Prezi with my students, but it's something I felt eminently comfortable with - and more importantly, something my students have consistently responded to.

In Stage Three ("Adaptation") the teacher has gained more experience using technology, and uses that experience for the benefit of their students' learning. In our discussion, we looked at how this also begins with small steps - basic programs like word processing, for example, are better-integrated into lessons for student use. In assessing my own level of tech integration, I'd put myself squarely in the middle of the Adaptation stage. I've gained a lot of confidence using technology (and having my students use it), but my "bag of tricks" is still somewhat limited to basic applications. Some of the best things I've already gained from this course is exposure to a wide variety of learning tech tools, a definite appreciation of their value, and a rudimentary understanding of how to employ them (something I hope to further hone and refine over this semester). Our lesson indicated that Adaptation can be the most difficult, frustrating stage, and I definitely agree. However, I think my (admitted) initial confusion and frustration with learning how to use these new tools is a motivating factor, and will push me to examine my practice more closely when it comes to tech. Adaptation may be a slow process for me, but once I've mastered this stage, I expect to continue to move toward full, effective integration.

As a final note, I'd like to include a link to this lesson, shared by USF's College of Education as part of their Technology Integration Matrix, in which a social studies teacher demonstrates a high level (i.e., "transformative," "goal-directed") of technology integration. While I may not be able to exactly replicate this, I think it's a good model of how technology can not only be incorporated into a social studies classroom, but done so in a truly innovative way.