💬 The Path to Twitter

Replied to The path to Twitter is paved with … by IaninSheffield (Marginal Notes)

Can you remember the route by which you came to use Twitter to support your professional learning?

Ian, your post (and visual) raised many questions. I think my own experience of Twitter was somewhat multi-pronged. There was quite a bit of inadvertent nudging, during a course on thinking, while I also had a few friends on it. I have documented a part of my story here, as well as created a short video documenting it:

I really wonder if it is ever one thing, rather than an assemblage of parts. This has me thinking about blogging as well and how the take up of Twitter might compare with the early days of educational blogging? Would there be similarities? Do these things change? Would someone starting out on their path now be different to yourself starting out in 2009? How does it differ from a wider discussion of connected education? Always so many questions.

6 responses on “💬 The Path to Twitter”

  1. Thanks for sharing those thoughts Aaron, especially the post and video which speak to this.
    You’re right of course; it isn’t a single thing. Ever. Let’s say two people from the same school who teach the same subject, attend the same TeachMeet at which they hear from someone extolling the virtues of Twitter. They both decide to give it a go and both find they really take to it. Although I might have drawn similar paths for them both on the above visualisation, the assemblage which brought each to (apparently) the same point will be different. The hinterland each brings is inevitably different … even if they were twins!
    I can’t say from experience whether Twitter & the early days of blogging share similarities; perhaps some, but not others. I am again drawn to hinterland (there’s a discussion of it at http://jmtrom.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/after-method.html), so those coming to twitter, at whatever point, will have different histories on which to draw. They might or might not have blogged, but nevertheless might or might not be affected; even if they hadn’t done it, they might have been influenced by someone who did. Someone who signs up for Twitter tomorrow may have heard from friends or colleagues, will doubtless have seen the latest Trump missive splashed across their news medium of choice, and may even have heard of how tweets influenced the Arab Spring. That hinterland wasn’t available back in 2009 when I started, so I guess a question then might be, does that matter? Perhaps what’s more important is what Twitter (or being connected more generally) does, rather than what it is or how it came about? Perhaps where I went in this post was somewhat of a wild goose chase? [Do they have those in Oz ;-)]

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  2. Liked After Method by Jeremy Tromley (jmtrom.blogspot.com.au)

    If methods compose reality, then we should select our methods based on what kind of reality we would like to see composed. This smacks a little of the extreme epistemological view that we can create whatever reality we want simply by imagining it to be so, but tied to the concept of the hinterland there are two significant differences. First of all, we have to start from where we are – the reality that is already composed – which provides the materials (literally and metaphorically) from which we can compose a new reality. And, second, composing a new reality will take work.

    via Ian Guest
    Also on:
    diigo.com
    Twitter

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  3. Can you remember the route by which you came to use Twitter to support your professional learning?

    In a recent response to Ian Guest, I spoke about a beginning to getting onto Twitter. After reading Ian’s reply, I realised I may have been ignoring the wild goose chase …

    https://collect.readwriterespond.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Microcast6.mp3

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  4. Can you remember the route by which you came to use Twitter to support your professional learning?

    In a recent response to Ian Guest, I spoke about a beginning to getting onto Twitter. After reading Ian’s reply, I realised I may have been ignoring the wild goose chase …

    https://collect.readwriterespond.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Microcast6.mp3

    Also on:

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