Saturday, June 25, 2016

Twitter Adventure (cont.) - Week 3


I’m starting to really have a better appreciation for Twitter.  Again, it hasn’t been one of my favorite social platforms.  However, from a professional stand point, I do see the infinite possibilities with sharing information, utilizing others thoughts and research and the sharing of articles for personal or professional viewpoints. 

I had the opportunity to look at a few of the hashtags from the link provided.  Wow!  It was a very exhaustive list of all sorts of interest areas.  A few that peaked my interest were #careerteched, #busedu and #blackedu. 

The #careeteched hashtag was amazing.  I was able to see the common sharing of what is really near and dear to me as a CTE educator.  One article that really spoke to me was  about blending academics and technical skills among academic colleagues.  Time and time again, I mention to other CTE teachers that its more than the skill set in CTE.  Students must understand the conceptual meanings of what they are doing.  This is where the relevance piece comes alive.  I’ve been in a couple of career academies and this is the one thing I look for.  Is CTE and Core classes integrating?  Which is another discussion in itself.  Every year as the leader of my CTE department, I create a committee of teacher leaders.  I think I may be able to come up with Twitter article study as opposed to a book study which is what I’ve done for years. 

The #busedu hashtag surprisingly had a few topics of internships and CTE related information.  There was also lots of discussion on school finance and business ethics.  This peaked my interest not for the CTE portion surprisingly but the finance piece.  A lot of what I do at the central office level deals with our federal and state allotment monies.  And let me just tell you.  Our district is pretty small and my department (CTE) alone brings in $12 million. 

The #blackedu hashtag was very eye opening.  There were lots of controversial topics such as, “Do educators (teachers) have a lot to do with how interracial friendships of kids decline as adolescence?” I found a lot of the conversation to be similar.  However, there were some great articles of African American successes in education. 

Overall, Twitter has definitely been overlooked by me.  However, I’m aware of the functions of Hootsuite and TwitterDeck, I’ve just not found a use for them at my level of exposure.  I’m sure that I will.  This course in general has given me tons to consider through my career as an educator. 

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