In the past month, I have reacquainted myself with Twitter, after having previously used the platform years earlier. To be honest, I have not ever really used Twitter heavily. I find this space functions best as a quick source for news, however, I already regularly peruse the news websites where I am looking for specific information such as CBC and anything sports-related. The reason I titled this post the Twitter Dilemma is because of my previous watching of the Social Dilemma, a documentary on Netflix which explores the dark side of social media use. In recent years, I have regularly taken extended breaks from my social media platforms, specifically Facebook and Instagram, as I find them to be distracting, unhealthy, and generally not worth my time. I recognize the value in staying connected to friends and family, seeing people's important life events, and keeping updated with what they are doing, but for me, the negatives outweigh the positives. When I regularly engage in social media, I find myself mindlessly scrolling for extended periods of time before ultimately realizing I just wasted a good chunk of time with nothing to show for it.
Community
As I said, the community aspect of social media is one of the things that draws me back to social media. I have recognized over the past month that there is some value in being on Twitter as an educator. Through exploring various hashtags, following educational sources, and staying connected to my classmates, it has helped me to connect with some great ideas and resources that I could potentially use in the future. Most specifically, I have found that the resources for future physical education activities have been most helpful for me. I appreciate these videos because they are concrete ideas shown through video that could be implemented in my classroom. I find physical education to be a class that is somewhat intimidating to me, despite my background in sports. Many students feel disconnected from this class as they get earlier, so I appreciate the engaging, creative ways that teachers are keeping their students engaged in physical activities.
Twitter in the Classroom
However, to be honest, I don't really plan on using Twitter after this class is over. Although I find the network of fellow teachers to be helpful, I find connecting in the real world with the many teachers that I know is more valuable than perusing through social media. I am lucky to have many friends and acquaintances that work in the world of education and I feel like reaching out to these people would be more valuable to me. Although there are many good ideas or resources on Twitter, I do think that what I am looking for as a beginning teacher is something that I haven't seen that much of - lesson plans and resources for teaching specific topics. Maybe I have to do some more exploring to do in order to connect with more resources, but I feel like this is something that I don't truly feel passionate about. I believe incorporating technology in the classroom is essential for the learning of my future students. I hope to engage my students in digital citizenship and equip them with the skills to use technology with ease, but I feel like the platforms, apps, websites, and resources I plan to use will likely not associate as much with social media due to my views of it's overall pitfalls. The use of Twitter as an educator seems more about promoting yourself than anything else. There are other ways to share with parents and caregivers about what is happening in your classroom and I plan to use these avenues instead of Twitter.
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