Hi everyone, and welcome back to my little slice of the internet! Today, let’s talk about my experience with Twitter.

I am by no means ‘new’ to Twitter. I believe I got an account either at the very end of high school or the beginning of university. My use of Twitter quickly changed as I went through my undergrad degree and saw the platform’s potential as a professional tool.

Once I convocated and began my teaching career, I was interested in engaging more intentionally with my PLN and joined some Twitter chats, most notably #saskedchat (a Saskatchewan-based education chat). I diligently joined the weekly chat and got to know many familiar faces within that subgroup of my PLN. #saskedchat was the perfect place for me to break into Twitter chats and developing my PLN – the people were friendly and funny, there were enough people present to keep a conversation going but not so many that it was totally overwhelming, and (being a Saskatchewan-based chat) it was specific to my place.

After being a frequent member of the chat for a while, I had the opportunity to try out a new, unknown realm of Twitter chatting: hosting my own night of #saskedchat. This meant coming up with a topic for the night, drafting the questions I would ask to participants, and leading the chat on the night of the event. It was, honestly, very easy and a natural next step in my #saskedchat journey. **I tried, to no avail, to find a saved document with evidence of my Twitter chat questions from when I hosted. I remember it was on the topic of Parent/Family Engagement, but have no idea when exactly it was or what my actual questions were. I hope everyone will believe me without providing evidence! haha

Since starting my graduate studies, I’ve obviously been a bit busier, so have fallen in and out of Twitter many times. Thus, I consider myself to be a Twitter “flitter,” because I will flit away for periods of time, but always seem to come back.

I flitted back in to Twitter during EC&I 832, and enjoyed it once again. I made a point to engage in #saskedchat and the course hashtag that semester, and was reminded why I like Twitter as a professional platform. However, after that course was over, I once again flitted out of the Twitterverse.

I think my main problem with Twitter is that the feed feels so overwhelming. Within minutes, there are dozens of new tweets to read. I simply can’t keep up and feel that I will miss something due to the sheer amount of content. I am a “sit-down-and-do-a-task-only-if-I-have-enough-time-to-finish-it” kind of person, so I avoid clicking on Twitter because I feel like I need to dedicate long periods of time to effectively go through my feed. I think the lesson here is that I need to start small and accept that I will never see everything. My goal is to start with just a few minutes a day (maybe setting an actual timer will help) to help build the habit and make it feel manageable.

To sum it all up:

• I have been engaging with Twitter as a professional tool for a long time
• I have experienced the benefits of engaging with a PLN on Twitter
• I see the various ways Twitter can be used as a professional tool
• I often flit away from Twitter for long periods of time, but always come back
• I need to be more intentional in order to attain daily engagement with Twitter (start small)

Hopefully by putting my intentions out there, it will keep me accountable to following through! I look forward to continuing my journey with Twitter as a professional, educational tool.

Until next time,

-KKF