I’ve really enjoyed the recent surge in connections I’ve been able to make thanks to a great initiative started on twitter using a hashtag-link 

to generate a list of all educators in one place. I found out about all this through @PrimaryPete_  who explains all of this far more eloquently than me on his blog here. Basically, the hashtag sets up a blastfollow site (a shared search page), so that when you tweet, you include #twittereducator in your tweet, your tweet will appear on the list, along with your Twitter name and you will be able to connect with even more ‘tweeps’ from the fabulous range of global twitter-educators. As a result, you will then make even more learning connections to enrich your Personal Learning Network just by going to this page.

It has worked really well for me this week, and I wanted to reflect on this by including just TWO examples (of many) that demonstrate the impact of this #twittereducator  project for me. I’ve framed my statement with a simple impact-sentence stem that I use when undertaking focused reflective practice with learners (educators & students alike) to talk about key influences and influencers for them and to analyse the impact these have had on their learning.

“As a result of #twittereducator, I have now connected with…

1. Some spectacular resources on pedagogical research and practice, plus some great links to educators in New Zealand who have conducted 

some excellent action research around the Key Competencies. These people and resources all connect brilliantly with the learning that I am involved with at the moment, looking at the relationship between skills, knowledge & understanding and dispositions in the secondary curriculum.

2. I have also connected with @pdonaghy who has suggested that I check out and register my blog on the International Edubloggers Directory, which I didn’t know about before this link, and, probably more importantly, would never have had the confidence to even consider registering with until this tweet was sent to me.”

It will be interesting to hear about the impact that the blastfollow has had on other twitter-educators over the next few weeks, but thank you to the whole educator-community for being so innovative and collaborative when it comes to harnessing the power of twitter once more.

I’ll be able to post more about this when I’ve pulled some of it together in a more coherent form, but for now, I really am on holiday, and for those who know me well…

‘…it’s all about learning…’ so Inever really stop.