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“Legit”-- Of Particularly Excellent Quality (similar to “cool” or “tight”)
posted by: Jill | January 26, 2011, 03:37 PM   

Disclaimer: I think that Will Richardson is legit

I attended professional development training where Will Richardson spoke recently. I was swept off my feet by his technology talk. He is that cool guy in college that knows all of the obscure but quality bands and when they're playing in town. And he's cool about sharing the information with you. All the while you sit and think, "How does this guy find this stuff!?"

Want to know what Will says is the best professional development tool in his tool belt? Twitter.

He was very clear to point out that he doesn't catch everything that goes through his Twitter feed. Eleven years into the 21st century, we have hopefully already resigned ourselves to the fact that we can't learn everything. Don't stress about it, let the feed flow. The task is to (1) know what you need and (2) find what will teach it to you. Choose a few tweets, gain knowledge then move on.

Noteworthy education hashtags in Twitter:

#edchat <--- All things education.

#comments4kids <--- Love this! You comment on students' projects which teachers have posted.

Noteworthy education websites:

The sites connect you to other people who are passionate about the profession and improving themselves and others within it. From there you can follow who you like on Twitter and visit their websites/blogs.

Twitter4teachers—choose your area of expertise and begin learning.  You can even add yourself in the mix for free by joining pbworks.com on the twitter4teachers page.  I’m in there under “Professional Development People.”

Twibes.com—this website is a clearinghouse for different Twitter groups.  Click on your preferred topic of interest (mine is the education group).

Please note I am not assuming that you will look at this and understand it within five minutes. It takes some time to learn. It's worth learning. You will be excited at the amount of professional learning that you will have at your fingertips—much of it is free. (For some of you, this post is elementary.)

You will need to do sorting and editing of who you follow. It's okay to un-follow people; it's not a break-up. As I get into Twitter I change who I follow and un-follow.

TodaysMeet—Do your students have the internet during class? Catch their thoughts! TodaysMeet is for the backchannel in the classroom. The website explains "Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback... [to] address audience needs."

See what I mean? Will and his information are legit.

 

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