I wasn’t going to write this reflection…But then I read this morning’s post by Doug Pete, Why Twitter?  which was prompted by my own tweet (below) and felt that letting the world know what I was working on might be a worthwhile story to tell.  Please read his post first!

When I read Doug’s post, I couldn’t help but smile.  One of the major drawbacks of Twitter is the 140 character limit and so all of the questions he poses in his post may be indicative of one of the major limitations of the platform.

I probably re-wrote my original query 5 times before I actually tweeted it.  I had to keep it simple & short. I meant the term Educator as Doug does; the broad term for anyone involved in or concerned with Education. I asked, “on Twitter” , because I figured would provide a number that would be easier to obtain than, “actively engaged on” Twitter (which is harder to define, and has more characters). What I wanted when I asked the question was the big-data figure; a figure that would impress the Dean of Graduate Studies at UOIT.

Here’s the story

Like Doug, I use Twitter to actively engage with other educators.  I use it to do research.  I use it to learn about trends and to share those trends with educators my District. I use it to share my own blog posts and to discover the blogs of other educators.  I love going to a conference and meeting the people with whom I’ve interacted on Twitter; as Doug suggests there is something really special about this.    I have been actively trying to establish a community on Twitter for my District for the past two years.

And so, I was a little bit disappointed that Twitter wasn’t really a platform used (or even referred to) in my MEd program.  The Dean of Graduate Studies, Robin Kay is forward thinking & collaborative; the program is very progressive which is why I selected it to begin with.  And though I don’t know him (except through his emails when he is asking for feedback or sharing a video he has created to help students navigate the world of thesis vs portfolio), I decided to email him to passionately plead the case of including Twitter more intentionally into some of the courses offered and to volunteer to host a webinar on the benefits of using Twitter for Higher Education.

I think the older I get, the more I am becoming an instigator…or maybe I always have been?

After I pressed send I worried about how presumptuous I had been.  He’s the Dean, for heaven’s sake.  He must be so busy.  Who do I think I am? Then, when he responded to me suggesting we have a virtual conference, I was both perplexed and excited!  What did I think would happen?  He wanted to talk to me about how a platform that only allows for 140 characters can possibly lead to any meaningful dialogue.  He also wondered about the extent to which Twitter could be useful, practical and sustainable at the Graduate studies level.

And so, I put out the question.  I was looking for a big-data figure in order to impress him with the sheer numbers.

Fortuitously, I found a resource shared by Alec Couros & Katia Hildebrant who seem to be engaging in research about using social media in #highered as well.  The doc they shared was PERFECT!! And then I engaged in conversation with a fellow named Peter Newbury with whom I had never interacted before about the challenges of using Twitter in higher ed. Part of the conversation is here:

Rusul Alrubail also jumped in on the conversation and gave me a few hashtags which would be useful, as well as some much needed moral support (did I mention that I’ve never met her in person?).

And even if the story stopped here, how amazing is it that I can go to Twitter with a query and get so much feedback and information in such a short period of time?

My virtual meeting was awesome! I’m pretty sure I rambled quite a bit, but as I suspected, Dr. Robin Kay was open and collaborative.  He even suggested I engage in a self-directed course on the topic.  I offered to curate some information for the MEd wiki and he has enthusiastically  agreed to share it.  I am so excited about the possibilities!

I am very proud to be a part of a program that is as open to collaboration and evolution of its methods.

I also think there is power in having the courage to engage in conversations around change rather than complaining about things.  If I had never written that email, I would not have had the opportunity to try a self-directed course, but more importantly, I would have been frustrated for the entire course of the program.

I am still really interested in finding out how many educators are on Twitter. Please take 10 seconds to fill out this brief survey: Click here

But at the end of the day, if I can persuade others in my own communities to become actively engaged and reap the benefits I do, then that’s really good enough for me.

Thanks, Doug.