Yesterday, I received an invite from Jon Andrews @jca_1975 to participate in the #learningfrontiers forum on Twitter. Through @aitsl , Jon arranged an ‘active forum’ for one hour between 8 & 9 pm on Wednesday 19 March 2014. At around 8 pm educators from around Australia jumped onto Twitter, entered #learningfrontiers in the search tool and PRESTO, we were instantly connected in a virtual discussion room for the next hour.
Jon was invited by @aitsl to lead the forum by posing questions. As host, host Jon types in thw question starting with “Q1″ and concluded his 140 character tweet with the hashtag #learningfrontiers. When responding, people led with “A1″ and also included #learningfrontiers in the response.
Jon’s first question was…. “Engagement is a community priority. Give E.G’s of HOW Sch L’drs & community partners create conditions for engagement?” The next 3 questions can be seen in the picture below.
The hour long forum was frenetic, inspiring, affirming, enriching, challenging and engaging – all in one! In that time I offered responses to questions, had some of my tweets retweeted, retweeted the tweets of others, answered one tro one questions put to me by forum participants, and also had my tweets favourited.
As part of this forum, I also engaged in ‘side conversations’. At one point I was offering colleagues a copy of our Pedagogy Leader Role Description. At another point, I shared a link to a video clip with @danhaesler & @stringer_andrea about teachers as coaches. From that conversation I was introduced to a blog which, in turn, saw me send the following email to @materdeiwagga teachers…..
Hello All,
As part of the Forum, I was introduced to some excellent initiatives occurring in schools across the country. One of them included a school where teachers invited students to the Department Meetings. So, with a title of “Random Idea”, I sent this email to teachers…..
Hello All,
No doubt I will get some interesting looks from teachers when I get up to speak at briefing in the morning.
In conclusion, #learningfrontiers reaffirmed my strong belief that Twitter offers an excellent professional learning network for anyone who wishes to participate in this virtual learning community. People are encouraging and supportive but also ask questions which challenge and occasional disturb me, in a good way!
Regards
Greg.
LEARN AND LEAD 