Common Patterns of Participation on Twitter...
Jennifer Wodlinger
March 21, 2014
ED 702
Common Patterns of Participation on Twitter
Directions: Follow the postings of an educator using Twitter for a two week period, and then complete this handout. (Feel free to choose any educator using Twitter. Include his or her name, a direct link to his or her Twitter stream, and a short description of his or her professional work.)
Name of educator : Joyce Valenza @joycevalenza About.me http://about.me/jvalenza teacher-librarian, learner, SLJ blogger
Abington, PA · about.me/jvalenza
Background : Teacher Librarian, PhD, blogger, advocate for school libraries, keynote speaker
Dates of monitoring : Two weeks ago and longer – Present to Forever
Types of Activities Observed
[ x ] Sharing knowledge and resources [ x ] Monitoring educational news sources
[ x] Tracking important conferences [ x ] Encouraging reflection
[ x ] Gathering instant feedback [ x ] Mentoring colleagues
Other:
Frequency of Posting
[] About once a week [ ] About once a day [ x ] Several times per day
Questions to Consider
This past week I was asked to write a blog for Destiny/Follett’s Year in the Life Blog for librarians. I found some really great material from Joyce on techniques of blogging, and from Shannon I retrieved some good tips for implementing National Poetry Month for April. Very timely :)
These amazingly intelligent women offer librarians a plethora of great ideas for teacher collaboration, 21st Century learning, web resources for students, information on fair-use and copyright, and countless other sources of information. I found some valuable resources for ELL and some good suggestions for adopting digital Ebooks and audio books.
Another good thing about following Joyce Valenza has been the connections I’ve made with other library and technology Twitter accounts. It’s been fun to see where here hashtags lead me and I’ve found some great informational pieces from TeachThought, School Library Journal, teacher librarian chats, and ed camps. It’s been interesting to see how small the world of technology and librarianship has become because of the interconnectivity. I think Twitter is a more visual tool than any other social network and it’s probably because of the overall design - simple and brief.
Ms. Valenza posted something recently from TeachThought : What To Tell Your Students About Monitoring Their Digital Footprints: 11 Tips. I felt like that post was particularly poignant. After reading other Twitter posts and our discussion in class last night (3/20/2014) I decided to become more vigilant about watching what kids are doing online at school. The truth is, our school is very liberal when it comes to kids and mobile devices. Kids are constantly on their cell phones during lunch, passing periods, and while in the library. I plan to talk to students about what they’re doing without being too obtrusive and nosy. It’s important to know what’s going on and it’s important to open up a line of communication with students that allows them to feel comfortable in case there is an incident and they need someone to confide in.
I’m wondering why teens prefer Instagram and Vine over Twitter and Facebook and I’m wondering why there is a shoulder shrug instead of a response when I ask them about it. I’m wondering if Twitter has the potential to be as popular as Facebook. Also, how do you acquire more followers? I guess that just takes time. I’m kind of shy about social networking still.
In the fall of 2006, I attended a small technology workshop in Colorado and was introduced to Twitter. The participants in the workshop, myself included, created our first accounts. It was fun for a day and a novel idea, but I just couldn’t get my head wrapped around it (140 characters or less must have scared me) and I pretty much put it aside as not important. I followed Ellen DeGeneres, John Mayer, Food Network and people who had nothing to do with technology, libraries, or education. In fact, that’s what I thought Twitter was about! LOL! I had a Facebook account for my library at the time that I utilized to post school events (track meets, honors, teacher of the year, you get the picture.) Inadvertently, my Twitter account was connected to that FB account and it posted all of the school events for me. It was pretty funny because I had about five followers and they were friends from another state. I’m sure they were excited to hear about last night’s volley ball game at Redlands Middle School! After an ugly debate, the school district told me to delete my Facebook page and in that interim of anger and disgust with my former district, I completely forgot about Twitter. It wasn’t until January, 2014, when I attended the Google Conference in Napa that I realized that Twitter is a great tool and that it was time for me to step up. Luckily, I remembered my handle to my old account and I updated my photo and background. Now, I have my Tweet Deck running all day and check it frequently. In fact, my goal is to post a Tweet about once a week. It’s kind of a thrill when someone like Sergio from Napa County or someone from the Google Summit wants to follow me! Tweeting and re-tweeting pertinent tidbits helps me track what I want to remember for a paper I’m writing, a resource for a teacher, or something I want to share with my Touro cohort. I’m not at the point where I check Twitter before email and I haven’t started putting @ in front of proper nouns, but I can see how people become addicted. There’s a lot of information to gain in a short, succinct venue. I am really liking Twitter!
March 21, 2014
ED 702
Common Patterns of Participation on Twitter
Directions: Follow the postings of an educator using Twitter for a two week period, and then complete this handout. (Feel free to choose any educator using Twitter. Include his or her name, a direct link to his or her Twitter stream, and a short description of his or her professional work.)
Name of educator : Joyce Valenza @joycevalenza About.me http://about.me/jvalenza teacher-librarian, learner, SLJ blogger
Abington, PA · about.me/jvalenza
Background : Teacher Librarian, PhD, blogger, advocate for school libraries, keynote speaker
Dates of monitoring : Two weeks ago and longer – Present to Forever
Types of Activities Observed
[ x ] Sharing knowledge and resources [ x ] Monitoring educational news sources
[ x] Tracking important conferences [ x ] Encouraging reflection
[ x ] Gathering instant feedback [ x ] Mentoring colleagues
Other:
Frequency of Posting
[] About once a week [ ] About once a day [ x ] Several times per day
Questions to Consider
- What trends do you notice in the patterns of participation for the educator that you’ve been monitoring? Are certain behaviors more common than others? Are there certain behaviors that seem more valuable to you than others? Which ones? Why?
- Did you learn any lessons that will be valuable in your primary work while monitoring the Twitter stream of this educator? What were they? How did this information help you do your job better or make your work easier?
This past week I was asked to write a blog for Destiny/Follett’s Year in the Life Blog for librarians. I found some really great material from Joyce on techniques of blogging, and from Shannon I retrieved some good tips for implementing National Poetry Month for April. Very timely :)
These amazingly intelligent women offer librarians a plethora of great ideas for teacher collaboration, 21st Century learning, web resources for students, information on fair-use and copyright, and countless other sources of information. I found some valuable resources for ELL and some good suggestions for adopting digital Ebooks and audio books.
- Did you learn any lessons about networking in social media spaces while monitoring the Twitter stream of this educator? What were they?
Another good thing about following Joyce Valenza has been the connections I’ve made with other library and technology Twitter accounts. It’s been fun to see where here hashtags lead me and I’ve found some great informational pieces from TeachThought, School Library Journal, teacher librarian chats, and ed camps. It’s been interesting to see how small the world of technology and librarianship has become because of the interconnectivity. I think Twitter is a more visual tool than any other social network and it’s probably because of the overall design - simple and brief.
Ms. Valenza posted something recently from TeachThought : What To Tell Your Students About Monitoring Their Digital Footprints: 11 Tips. I felt like that post was particularly poignant. After reading other Twitter posts and our discussion in class last night (3/20/2014) I decided to become more vigilant about watching what kids are doing online at school. The truth is, our school is very liberal when it comes to kids and mobile devices. Kids are constantly on their cell phones during lunch, passing periods, and while in the library. I plan to talk to students about what they’re doing without being too obtrusive and nosy. It’s important to know what’s going on and it’s important to open up a line of communication with students that allows them to feel comfortable in case there is an incident and they need someone to confide in.
- What questions about common patterns of communication on Twitter do you still have? What excites you about building your own network on Twitter?
I’m wondering why teens prefer Instagram and Vine over Twitter and Facebook and I’m wondering why there is a shoulder shrug instead of a response when I ask them about it. I’m wondering if Twitter has the potential to be as popular as Facebook. Also, how do you acquire more followers? I guess that just takes time. I’m kind of shy about social networking still.
In the fall of 2006, I attended a small technology workshop in Colorado and was introduced to Twitter. The participants in the workshop, myself included, created our first accounts. It was fun for a day and a novel idea, but I just couldn’t get my head wrapped around it (140 characters or less must have scared me) and I pretty much put it aside as not important. I followed Ellen DeGeneres, John Mayer, Food Network and people who had nothing to do with technology, libraries, or education. In fact, that’s what I thought Twitter was about! LOL! I had a Facebook account for my library at the time that I utilized to post school events (track meets, honors, teacher of the year, you get the picture.) Inadvertently, my Twitter account was connected to that FB account and it posted all of the school events for me. It was pretty funny because I had about five followers and they were friends from another state. I’m sure they were excited to hear about last night’s volley ball game at Redlands Middle School! After an ugly debate, the school district told me to delete my Facebook page and in that interim of anger and disgust with my former district, I completely forgot about Twitter. It wasn’t until January, 2014, when I attended the Google Conference in Napa that I realized that Twitter is a great tool and that it was time for me to step up. Luckily, I remembered my handle to my old account and I updated my photo and background. Now, I have my Tweet Deck running all day and check it frequently. In fact, my goal is to post a Tweet about once a week. It’s kind of a thrill when someone like Sergio from Napa County or someone from the Google Summit wants to follow me! Tweeting and re-tweeting pertinent tidbits helps me track what I want to remember for a paper I’m writing, a resource for a teacher, or something I want to share with my Touro cohort. I’m not at the point where I check Twitter before email and I haven’t started putting @ in front of proper nouns, but I can see how people become addicted. There’s a lot of information to gain in a short, succinct venue. I am really liking Twitter!
- How do you intend to build on this learning experience? Will you study the Twitter streams of additional educators? Are you ready to start your own Twitter account?