Confessions of a Closet Blogger

Hi, my name is Kate Smith and I am a closet blogger. I admit it, for over two years I have been writing blog posts and building wikis on technology integration and educational resources but I NEVER MADE THEM PUBLIC. Starting today, I am going to begin moving old posts to this site and make them PUBLIC (gulp!). Why? Let me tell you.

Twitter made me do it.

More specifically, the professional and personal learning networks (pln) available to me on Twitter. Let me explain.

One of my goals this summer was to delve back into Twitter. I knew it could be used "for the good of mankind and its children" and I wanted to experience it myself. I had Twitter-addicted friends (sorry, but that's how I saw you) and I began to overhear such things as "I found this great article on Twitter...", "my class sent a survey via Twitter and you wouldn't believe the responses we got", and the clincher,"my class was studying outer space so we followed the tweets of one of the astronauts while he was at the space station." Seriously?? I want in.

So in I went. I began by following quality educators, tech integrators, educational bloggers, music teachers and education organizations. As I came across tweets I thought were powerful, I retweeted them. Eventually I developed enough courage to reply to them and low and behold, people began following ME. (As if I have have anything to say! But we'll get to that...)

And then one day the sky opened. I was introduced to the magic of hashtags. Now, instead of relying on what seemed like the random flow of tweets, I could narrow it down to a specific conversation around educational topics. Now we're talking,er... tweeting!

One day I was researching effective professional development for tech integration. I wanted to be up-to-date on the trends within PD and wondered if anyone on Twitter could help. So I created my own hashtag. The suggestions came back IMMEDIATELY. People were responding to me, retweeting my request and following my hashtag. In only a few hours, I had enough feedback to lead me to amazing articles, blog posts and THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THEM.

Yes, the change agents of our world are only a tweet away. Amazing, when you think about it.

Since then, my Twitter pln has helped me countless times. Day or night, 24/7, my pln has been available. I'm incredibly grateful to my professional and personal learning networks on Twitter. I've made new friends, been introduced to new ideas and have grown as an educator.

It's time to give back.

Special thanks to @cyndiejacobs,@soingirl, @doremigirl,@gret, @StarrMatica, @Grade1,@thomasjwest, @shirleylacroix and @pisanojm for your helpful responses and patience.

Most importantly I want to thank @gcouros who was the first one to say "I would love to hear more..." @gcouros, the next post is for you.