Professional Learning and Networking in an Online Environment

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submitted by
Emily Larson
MCTM President

There has been an amazing transformation that has taken place in both professional learning and networking in mathematics teaching and learning. It has been organic and has some of the strongest networks and support available to mathematics educators. It is built on the framework of social media tools like Twitter, and BLOGs. So how can you get started? I would suggest starting with Twitter.

As I think about my interactions with these online networks, I will honestly say that most of my time is spent lurking, that is I don’t post much. I follow around 125 people and have less than 150 followers. I try and retweet and like the really great ideas that resonate with me. That being said, over the weekend I found 3 articles with ideas that I put in place in my work this week.

Start by getting a Twitter Account. Go to https://twitter.com/ and on the right side click on Sign Up. This will walk you through step by step getting an account set up, just fill in the information and follow the steps.

There are two ways to engage in Twitter, by following other users (@username) OR by searching for and following a hashtag (#eventname). When you have logged into your account and are on the homepage, click on the magnifying glass on the toolbar. When you find someone you want to follow click Follow. All posts by the people you follow will show up on your feed. If you search a # you will follow the conversation around a specific topic or idea.

Here is a very short list of some @username and #eventname that you should check out. These will lead you toward others you can follow. After you have followed someone you can see their list of people they follow.

Some Organizations/Groups that might be of interest include:
@mctm_mn
@NCTM
@ASCD

I have found that if you find someone who follows a lot of people it makes finding new people to follow so much easier. Sara VanDerWerf our MCTM Past President @saravdwerf is getting close to 1000 people she is following, you can get some great ideas on who to follow.

One important hashtag to check on is #MTBoS (Math Twitter Blogosphere).

Do one thing, get started and just go to check it out.