When my son was younger his pediatrician convinced him he needed to try four bites of all the food on his plate. He went from a diet of chicken fingers and fruit to calamari and steak, granted he still won’t eat vegetables willingly, but at least he has four bites. I believe the same four magic bites is applicable when it comes to web 2.0 tools, and I would like to encourage my colleagues to give these tools a chance before writing them off.
Twitter was one of those tools for me. I tried it once or twice several months ago. I could not see a purpose to this social networking tool. After joining the Social Networking Group on PLP ning, I read this post by Jeff Utecht and gave Twitter another chance, and the magic happened. I started by looking up Spanish teachers, and found many were not liked by Twitter users, but I also found a little Tweet from an Instructional Technology Coordinator looking for information for one of his Spanish teachers on Skype. It hit me then. I can be a resource for others and other people I haven’t met in person can be a resource for me. I actively started growing my personal learning network instead of waiting for it to find me.
Two months later, I am a poster child for Twitter. I have met multiple Modern Language teachers from the UK currently using exciting and innovative web 2.0 tools to enhance their language class. I joined an Ning that specializes in using photos for pedagogical purposes. My Twitter buddy in California has helped me with all my accent mark trials and tribulations. An educator and translator in Spain continually sends me great links to anything from online dictionaries to funny videos about language learning. My French teacher friend in the south also has the added advantage of watching (and not spoiling) episodes of Lost. If you notice I have only named some of my online colleagues who teach a foreign language. I haven’t (and couldn’t) name all the other innovators in education who take time out of their day to share resources, ideas and great links with me on Twitter.
I shudder to think what I would have missed if I hadn’t gone for that fourth bite on Twitter. So I am going to make a deal with myself to keep an open mind about ways to innovate my classroom. I may find, just like my son did with vegetables, that not all tools or methods are to my liking, but I will at least give them the benefit of the doubt before writing them off.
