My Micro-blogging addiction

I have to admit it, I'm hooked. My micro-blogging service of choice is Twitter and in the words of one of my Tweeps, @trubol, "Twitter is a great gateway technology".  For me, that is true, I started with Twitter and that led to Pinterest, Diigo, Instagram....you know the story.  In one of my recent posts I wrote about Twitter as one of the top ed tech tools to tackle this summer.  Anyone can write short, 140 character tweets about interesting topics.  There is something less intimidating about micro-blogging that makes it a perfect way to start in social media and blogging.

How I use Twitter:

It is the best professional development I have experienced.  I connect with other ed tech coordinators, teachers and administrators all over the world to share ideas and learn together. Below is an example of a recent connection I made on Twitter.  I was looking for middle school teachers using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) so I could connect them to teachers in my district looking to start using GAFE with middle schoolers.  From this conversation I hope to set up a video chat or Google hangout with my teachers so they can learn how others are making GAFE work.

Two milestones I am looking forward to are my 1000th tweet and reaching 500 followers.  You can find on Twitter at  @raefearing

Other educators share tons of cool ed tech tips and ideas that I then pass along to teachers in my school district.  I set up an iPad educator Google Group and when I hear about free apps or ways to use ipads in the classroom I pass these ideas along to the iPad Educator Group.

I also created a board on Pinterest with Twitter tips for teachers.  This visual micro-blogging site lets me create visual boards of cool things I find online.  This is a picture of my Twitter for Educators board on Pinterest.

Twitter for Educator Pinterest Board

One goal this year are to introduce more teachers to Twitter in my district.  I developed an online Twitter workshop for teachers so teachers could learn at their own pace.  I want to share with others my excitement at being part of this vibrant learning community. I would also like to get other teachers on Pinterest so we can share ideas in my district and globally.  It would be great to hear from others about how to introduce these new technology resources to teachers who are already so short on time.  If you have ideas about how to generate interest in micro-blogging and social media with teachers I would love for you to comment on this post.