The Pros and Cons of Moderating a Slow Twitter Chat

This week I moderated our first #LibChatNZ slow Twitter chat.  After reading this blog post I asked Craig Kemp for some more information.

@MSimmsNZ it's a question a day and respond in your own time following the hashtag / check out #asiaED & #BFC530 as the best examples

— Craig Kemp (@mrkempnz) January 24, 2016

We decided it was worth giving it a go, and here's what I thought about it:

Pros

• The format allows for a considered response to be posted at the most convenient time for the participant.
• The speed of the chat is more user-friendly for new Twitter users, as opposed to the high-speed one hour chat version.
• There is enough time to consider all the responses and reply to most of them.  A conversation about a particular comment can take as long as required and not feel rushed by the fact that a new question has just been asked.
• It allows for an extended consideration of one question.

Cons

• It is hard for participants to remember to contribute every day for a week, but if you are constantly reminding people that it's on it feels like you're nagging!
• You lose the momentum that comes from having everyone contributing at the same time.  People can post when no-one else is online so opportunities for conversation can be missed.
• Moderating takes a whole week!
• The questions used need to be meaty enough to generate a whole day's discussion.  This takes out the smaller, introductory questions that you might use to build up momentum with a traditional Twitter chat.

Our chat this week was also badly timed as it was the first week back to school for many of us.  That makes it hard to know whether it was the timing or the format that reduced the amount of participants...probably both!  

If you are moderating a smaller slow chat I would recommend using ifttt.com and adapting a recipe that allows you to get sent an email every time that someone uses your hashtag.  I hadn't used the site before but it was relatively easy to do.  And you can turn it off once you are finished.

I think that a slow chat might work nicely if you are trying to gather information and not necessarily needing to chat as much.  Or, if you have a large amount of participants who are going to be regularly contributing over the course of the week.  Otherwise, I prefer a traditional one hour chat where you can interact immediately with others and it feels more vibrant and energetic.

Have you taken part in a slow chat?  What did you think about it?

How to get the most out of Twitter

View image | gettyimages.com

It's no secret that I love Twitter.  I've blogged about how to join and how it helps me in my work.  It's not just me either, in a recent list of the Top 100 Tools for Learning, taken from a survey of over 2,000 learning professionals, Twitter came out on top.

At the SLANZA conference I attended recently I met people who were on Twitter but needed help with what to do next.  There are a few things that I think you can do to get the most out of Twitter:

• Try to get in the habit of using Twitter regularly.  For a long time I would open up Twitter on a Saturday or Sunday morning, look through my feed and retweet anything interesting.  And that was enough to keep my presence up and keep exposing me to interesting things.  
• Mornings can be a good time to catch up as you will see more tweets from overseas.
• Aim to follow at least 50 people.  Then you will get a variety of tweets to look at in your Twitter feed.
• It's great to follow NZ school librarians, but to widen your perspective you can follow educators, authors, publishers, tech gurus, makers, public librarians and libraries from NZ and overseas.  By the way, you don't have to know someone to follow them!  However, it is nice if you put in your Twitter bio that you are a librarian, and then people will realise why you are interested in them.  
• I've done a short list of people you might like to follow (see my "Twitter Starter Kit" below). I'm currently following 743 people so I haven't included all of them!  I've chosen just five people in each category who have a lot of tweets and/or followers.  
• Have a look at the bios of the people on the list and some of their recent tweets to see if you might be interested in following them.
• Once you are following a few people, Twitter will start giving you suggestions of people you might like to follow who are in similar professions.  This can be a good way to find more people to follow.
• Another good way to find people to follow is to join in or watch a Twitter chat and see who is tweeting things that interest you.  I have also listed some chats below.
• Speaking of Twitter chats, here's a couple of things you should know if you want to join in:
• I write myself a note - 'Don't forget the hashtag!".  You don't need to reply to the person asking the questions but you do need to put the hashtag at the end of your answer.  For example, if you join in the #libchatnz chat then @libchatnz might tweet "Q1 What's your favourite colour? #libchatnz"  to answer you would start a new tweet "A1 red #libchatnz".  
• Once you've shared your own answer you might like to read what others are saying and reply to them, or retweet or favourite their answers.
• If you arrive late to the chat, just pick up from the latest question.
• The easiest way to follow a chat is by using a tool like TweetDeck on your computer.  This allows you to set up columns - you can have a column #libchatnz to see the chat, one for @LibChatNZ so you can easily see the questions, and one for notifications so you can see if anyone is replying to your tweets.  There are some good tutorial videos on YouTube you can watch to learn how to set it up.
• Adding a hashtag doesn't have to happen only during a Twitter chat.  If you are tweeting about your library you can add #libchatnz to the end of the tweet so more people will be able to see it.  If you are using Tweetdeck then you can glance at your #libchatnz column whenever you are on Twitter to see if anyone has shared anything new.

Twitter Starter Kit

NZ School Librarians                                        

@MSimmsNZ (me)

@alidevnz

@MiriamTuohy

@StephEllisNZ

@Edna331

NZ Public/Academic Librarians

@SarahLibrarina

@KiwiLibrarian

@Fiona_KerrNZ

@melchivers

@laurindathomas

NZ Teachers

@AKeenReader

@Juliet_Revell

@ariaporo22

@BridgetLCM

@ReidTeachnz

NZ Principals/APs/DPs

@stephen_tpk

@mrs_hyde

@ClaireAmosNZ

@CaroBush

@BridgetCasse

NZ Public Libraries

@Auckland_Libs

@HamNZ_Libraries

@WDLibraries

@KaiparaLibrary

@ChristchurchLib

Authors

@johngreen

@Patrick_Ness

@seymoursimon

@DavidRileyNZ

@macbarnett

Publishers

@HarperChildrens

@Scholastic

@SimonSchuster

@PenguinRandomNZ

@HachetteNZ

NZ Tech Gurus

@mosborne01

@Allanahk

@barbs1

@annekenn

@virtuallykaren

US Librarians

@jenniferlagarde

@shannonmmiller

@gwynethjones

@buffyjhamilton

@joycevalenza

US Tech Gurus

@ICTEvangelist

@rmbyrne

@web20classroom

@AuntyTech

@coxtl

Australian Librarians

@KayOddone

@HelenStower1

@KatSchrav

@audrey_nay

@camillaelliott

Makerspace Experts

@makerspaces_com

@gravescolleen

@DianaLRendina

@NZMindlab

@NMHS_lms

Other

@edutopia

@donalynbooks
@sallyheroes

@librarypaula

@LibChatNZ (NZ School Librarians)

@OZTLNet (Australian Teacher Librarian Network)

@L2_S2S (National Library - Services to Schools)

@Schoollibsnz (SLANZA)

@ALIANational (Australian Library and Information Association)

@sljournal (School Library Journal)

@schoolscatinfo

Hashtags/Chats

#libchatnz (NZ school librarians - 8pm, 1st Monday of the Month)

#austl (Australian teacher librarians)

#tlchat (US teacher librarians)

#uklibchat (UK librarians)

#edchatnz (NZ teachers - 8.30pm every 2nd Thursday)

#engchatNZ (NZ English teachers - 8.30pm every 2nd Tuesday)

#aussieED (Australian teachers)

#makered (US maker-teachers)

#makerEdau (Australian maker chat)

Intro to Power Walking: A Review of Day Two, SLANZA 2015 Conference

Day two of the SLANZA 2015 conference starts with me getting up so early that I end up being late.  You know how that happens?  You have so much time that you do some other things that don't really need to be done and the next thing you know you're power walking along Papanui Road trying to get to St Andrew's College on time!  I had arranged to meet with one of the conference team who would be in the room I was presenting in, so I could set up and be confident that the technology was working.  I see her as I arrive and she explains that the lights aren't working in the Science Block so I can't set up anyway.

Here's a summary of the rest of my day:

• Before the first keynote Cathy, our wonderful conference spokesperson, gives a great promotion of Twitter and #libchatnz.  Yay for Cathy!  She suggests a Twitter training session over the second half of lunch that she, Clare (one of my fellow #libchatnz moderators) and I can facilitate.

• The first keynote is "Modern Maori Learning" with Janelle Riki.
• Janelle encourages us to think about whether Maori children who come into our libraries and hear, see and feel that we value their culture.
• She says we are moving from learn-assess to learn-create-share.
• She talks about encouraging the "c" words - creative, confident, capable, collaborative, connected, competitive, culturally responsive.
• She says relationships with students are important.  We need to know them so we can figure out what they're good at, celebrate it and leverage off it.
• She says the library should be a place for everyone to come home to.

• The next workshop is mine - "Raising the profile of your library by having fun".
• The technology works!
• I promise to share my slides, so they are embedded below.
• I get great feedback from the participants. One does the wrapped up library books idea around Christmas, but uses them like an advent calendar and unwraps one every day.  Another talks about how you can get dogs for your students to read to in the library and a librarian from Australia actually has an exercise bike in her library (she says she was sick of using her one to hang her clothes on!)

• Workshop 5 is "Libraries in Aotearoa" with Joanna Matthew.  
• Joanna is the Executive Director of LIANZA and she goes over the new branding of libraries in New Zealand.
• Libraries Aotearoa represents ALL libraries in New Zealand.
• They want to ensure libraries and librarians have a relevant place in the future of NZ society.  They want to shift attitudes, to make sure our communities understand the changing roles of libraries.
• Joanna describes the values of Libraries Aotearoa, which are set out on their website.
• At the LIANZA conference in November they will be launching Community Engagement packs which will help libraries advocate and spread our message to our communities.

• During lunch we see some librarians interested in Twitter. Cathy shows several people how to use TweetDeck to watch a Twitter chat and Clare and I show some others the basics of Twitter.  We run out of time all too quickly, I think it might be worth running some hands-on PD about this in our regions.  It is heartening to see people showing interest.

• My next workshop is with Anne Williams, the Teacher Librarian at Ashburton College - "Promoting reading at Ashcoll".
• Anne is using those plastic clip-on name tags as a way to attach a book recommendation to the book.  She also shows book trailers and does book talks.
• They have set up groups with the older students (reading mentors) reading to juniors.  The juniors all follow along with the same book.
• When students have permission to come to the library they bring a flyswatter with their teacher's initials on it!
• Anne runs a competition where teachers take a photo of themselves reading something they like to read and doing something they like to do, with their faces covered, and students have to guess who it is.
• To split us into groups Anne hands us random pictures of characters from stories.  We have the characters names but have to work out what story they are from and find others who have characters from the same story.  When she does it at school she has the book covers on different tables so the groups know where to sit and can see the cover of the book their characters are from.

• The last session of the day is a Primary School Library Tour.  We visit Fendalton Open Air School and Halswell School.  
• Fendalton Open Air School is the school my book club Skyped with a few weeks earlier, and coincidentally they have a library signpost similar to the one I have been in the process of arranging.  I brought Dave, our bookclub mascot, down with me so that I can take some photos of him at Fendalton's library.  I mentioned that in my presentation in the hope that people wouldn't think I was too weird when I starting doing it!
• I am very impressed with their library.  It is small like mine but it has lots of interesting things in it and I get a sense that the students love to visit it.
• Desna, the librarian, had a great relationship with her very creative caretaker.  She asks for things like signposts and trees and tridents and he builds them for her.

• Halswell School has a library that was rebuilt after the earthquake.  It is a MLE school (Modern Learning Environment), and it is interesting to learn that they considered whether they needed a library and what the role of their librarian would be.  We get to look around their classrooms too.

• We get dropped off back at St Andrews so by the time I power walk (again!) back to my motel it is almost time to be picked up for the conference dinner and I end up not having time to get changed.  And I did bring a dress to wear!  Then we wait for twenty minutes for the bus so I would have had time after all.  But never mind, we have a lovely dinner, great company and a very funny entertainer so it is an excellent night.

#Awesome: A Review of Day One, SLANZA 2015 Conference

Earlier this week I attended the SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) 2015 Conference.  I had such a wonderful time learning new things but the best bit was meeting people I only knew from Twitter, catching up with librarians I only see at conferences, and being surrounded by people who love what I love.

Here's a review of day one of my experiences at the conference (and here is day two and day three):

• The first keynote is from Roger Dennis - "Digital Acceleration - the world's changing faster than you think".  
• Roger talks about paradigm shifts and how easy it is to miss them if you are focussing on what you do and not noticing what is going on in the world around you.  It is important to notice what is happening in other industries as it might impact on what you do.
• He prints a 3D bolt while speaking, and I'm impressed when he says they're 3D printing houses in China!
• He talks about future jobs and how anything based on rules will be taken over by computers.
• He suggests subscribing to Wired magazine to keep up with how people relate to technology. I've followed them on Twitter - @wired.

• Workshop 1 for me is "Selfies in the library: using social media in school libraries" with Lorna Smith and Julia de Ruiter.  
• They remind us that we need to be aware of what platforms our users are using, share their excellent blog and a video that has certain people "hashtagging" throughout the rest of the conference #hashtagsrule!
• Somebody in the session mentions they have a library cat that has it's own Twitter account.  How cool is that?!  Perhaps our bookclub minion mascot could have one....
• They mention book "shelfies" and posts where they "ask the librarian" unusual questions about their lives (e.g. would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?!).
• They give permission for us to e-stalk if we're not ready to contribute yet.  But when we do start, have a strategy and make consistent and regular posts.
• And "always default to cat videos" is great social media advice, complete with a good example!

• Workshop 2 is "Don't Panic! The Hitch-hikers Guide to....Book Week! with the lovely Cathy Kennedy, one of the organising team for the conference.
• About a year earlier Cathy decides on a theme and then gathers resources and books that fit it.
• Cathy is a teacher and I am impressed with her approach to Book Week that takes into account the teachers' workloads and ways to keep them manageable.
• She schedules Book Week so that it doesn't clash with busy school activities, rather than coinciding it with national or international book/library celebrations.
• She provides teachers with a Teachers' Resource Booklet to get buy in for Book Week.  It outlines events and competitions, has lesson plans and summaries of books that fit the theme.
• She uses Graphic Leftovers Stock Images on her posters and I may just have been persuaded to shell out a few dollars for images because her promotional material is so classy!
• She takes the opportunity to introduce students and teachers to new technology by incorporating it into her Book Week competitions - clever!
• She does a Battle of the Books book quiz using a Livebinder.
• She invites performers to attend as she has had great success with them.  She tells them her theme and often they tailor their performances for her.
• She does bookmarks, photo booths, scavenger hunts, staff competitions (so they don't feel left out), and ads to promote Book Week using Animoto.
• To decorate the library she uses party decorations, and she always decorates her doors (they look amazing!).

• The second keynote speaker is Mark Osborne - "Innovative Library Environments". 
• Like Roger Dennis he touches on jobs changing in the future and the fact that any job that can be routined is rapidly being off-shored or automated.
• He says that knowledge is a commodity that's free like air or water so it's not what you know but what you can do with what you know.
• He says an important skill will be the ability to solve real world, authentic, challenging problems together.
• He sees the library as moving away from being a storehouse of books and towards being a service centre, community space, gallery and storehouse of specialist equipment.
• He asks what we think the modern school library should be.  Here are the results.

• My final workshop for the day is "Building reading warriors: Engaging boys in reading" with David Riley.
• David starts by saying how much he enjoyed "The Magic Faraway Tree" as a child, and then describes his enthusiasm for Barry Crump's books, which had characters he could relate to.
• He describes the inspirational story of Dr Ben Carson, an African American living in poverty who was struggling at school before his mother made him read.  He tells his class "There was a doctor in that guy, the least guy you would have thought of".  And they all clamour to get a book.
• David talks about why boys aren't reading:
• Lack of connections to the library and library staff
• Reading not seen as connected to aspirations and real life
• Insufficient guidance in choosing what to read and reading strategies
• Discouraging certain kinds of literature: graphic novels/manga, magazines, Guinness Book of Records.
• He suggests giving boys a choice about what books to buy and then having a box opening celebration - making a big deal that the books have arrived.
• He talks about tapping into pop culture trends, using students' interests, planning father and son events and giving students competitions e.g. Rugby League Reads.
• David approaches well-known male achievers who read and asks them to come to his school, to make reading look cool and connect it to real life.
• I have David Riley's books and they are great. He wrote them because he couldn't find any sports books at the right level for his students.  I am so impressed with David as a reading mentor and would highly recommend getting him in to speak to your boys (David is a drama teacher based in Otara, Auckland).

• Next the SLANZA awards are given out to some very deserving librarians and then it is time for our Twitter dinner. We are a mixed bunch - primary, secondary, co-ed, single sex, public, librarians and a teacher. And yet there is no shortage of conversation and it is great to get to know people that I have connected with on Twitter.
• I text my husband with a photo of my food.  I've never done this before but have recently received a bunch of photos from when he was away and feel he needs payback.  This is what I get in return!

• I get back to my room and go through my presentation one last time. I am pleased it is on before morning tea the next day so that I can get it over and done with and relax again!

Introducing #LibChatNZ!

I have blogged about my love of Twitter before but now I find myself the founder of a NZ Twitter chat for librarians.  That's what happens when you ponder aloud on Twitter about whether there is such a thing!

I'd already decided to hold the chat monthly and, based on the results from a survey of interested librarians, it is going to be on the first Monday of the month at 8pm (except January, let's enjoy our holidays then!).  

For the first chat, on Monday 3 August, we are going to talk about Makerspaces.  These are the hot topic in American libraries right now.  The NMC Horizon Report for 2015 talks about important developments in educational technology.  In their "one year or less" timeframe it lists two developments - BYOD and Makerspaces.  So let's see whose interested in these, if anyone already has a Makerspace and how we can get started if we want one.

Back to the topic of Twitter, I got to thinking about one of the comments on the survey, which was that "perhaps some guidelines would be a good idea".  I searched for some basic information I could share about Twitter but couldn't find anything that said exactly what I wanted it to.  So I am now thinking that I should make a little guide for newbies to Twitter...

Newbies' Guide to Twitter

First off, if you have some reservations about Twitter Ned Potter will answer all your concerns.  But here's my two cents worth - I know we have the listserv and Google+ and Facebook but Twitter has some unique benefits.  It can connect you to a broad range of people who have interesting ideas and experiences, and by getting involved with a Twitter chat you can have a real time conversation about a particular topic.  

Here are some tips for getting started:

• Obviously the first step is to sign up with Twitter.  If you don't want Twitter texting you with notifications (I prefer to check my app), I'd recommend you sign up with your email address and not your phone number, although you can change that later anyway.

• You will need to choose a username that hasn't already been taken.  A lot of NZ tweeters, myself included, put NZ at the end of their Twitter handle (username) and that usually does the trick. 

• You also need to upload a photo or cartoon or else Twitter will give you an egg as a default.  Speaking from experience the downside of having a cartoon picture is that if you do meet fellow tweeters they don't know who you are!

• Make sure you put something in your profile too.  People will use that to  learn what your interests are and to decide whether to follow you back.

• **Update - I just had to add this in, an excellent resource from Kay Oddone that helps you get to know the Twitter interface.

• Send out your first tweet by typing in the "What's happening?" box on your computer or tapping the box with the quill in it in the top right-hand corner of the Twitter app.  It doesn't have to be amazing, if you get stuck you could just say "Hi @MSimmsNZ, I am sending my first tweet!".  By including @MSimmsNZ I'll be notified about your tweet and I'll reply to you.

• Then try searching Twitter for @LibChatNZ by using the magnifying glass at the top. Scroll to the bottom of the results page and you should see the account for @LibChatNZ.  If you click/tap on that then you can follow @LibChatNZ and then click/tap on the followers button to see all of the followers of @LibChatNZ..  These are your fellow NZ librarians so you might like to follow them too.  

• Once you follow people you will get their tweets in your Twitter feed.  They may also follow you back.  I panicked a bit when that happened as I felt people might be expecting me to be tweeting a lot - don't worry, they don't!  You can watch what other people are tweeting without having to join in.

• If you do see something of interest in your timeline then you can retweet it, or reply to it and start a conversation.

• If you have followed quite a few people your Twitter feed will fill up quickly.  I have been on Twitter for four years and after a while I found I couldn't read all of the individual tweets that were coming through.  And then I realised that I didn't have to!  It was very liberating.  Now I just swish through the timeline a bit and stop at random to read interesting tweets.  If people really want me to see their tweet then they will include my Twitter handle in the tweet and I will be notified about it.

• If you're feeling confident try searching for #tlchat or #edchatnz to see what U.S. librarians or NZ teachers are sharing on Twitter.  And of course our new hashtag for NZ librarians - #libchatnz.

• Once you're ready to join in the #libchatnz chat, you need to be on Twitter at 8pm on the first Monday of the month, and you need to have searched for #libchatnz. #edchatNZ has some great advice about how to participate in a chat.

• For the more confident user, @mrkempnz has some good tips for following a fast Twitter chat.

I hope this all makes sense.  I've been trying to see it from a beginner's perspective and be as clear as possible but I didn't want to make it too long either.  Hopefully you'll manage to get set up and then if you need anything else clarified just tweet me (unless you can't work out how to tweet, then we have a problem!).

Thanks to @ariaporo22 and @ReidTeachNZ for their help and advice about this (and where else but Twitter would a librarian in Hamilton have found help from teachers in Rotorua and Auckland?!).

Update 5 August 2015

I connected with @MissDtheTeacher who was very generous with her time and sharing her experience as moderator of the very busy and successful #edchatnz.

Then I survived moderating my first chat!  And what a great chat it was too.  There were so many interesting people posting their thoughts.  We had primary and secondary librarians and teachers and public librarians too.  That meant a good range of views and experiences to draw from.

Twitter PD in Action

I am a huge Twitter fan.  I have blogged about it before but when I am put on the spot I always struggle to show just how often it helps me with my work.  So I thought I would look back through my tweets this month and choose the information I found that inspired conversations with teachers at my school or with other librarians.  I have had a busy month, so I haven't been on Twitter that much, but I still found the following gems:

MT @TeacherTuttle: project proposal plan for students to complete #geniushour. pic.twitter.com/rA8WG74PRV @abcchays @JhMarkotsis @RachelHarvey6
— Annemarie Hyde (@mrs_hyde) February 7, 2015

This retweet from Annemarie, a DP in Rotorua, was very timely as only the day before I had been discussing how the library could support one of our Year 6 teachers trying out genius hour.  She was pleased when I flicked this plan through for her to have a look at.

Why digital natives prefer reading in print. The Washington Post http://t.co/wvdC0JVXAB #tlchat #edchat #RU575
— Joyce Valenza (@joycevalenza) February 24, 2015

Earlier this week Joyce Valenza, an American teacher-librarian, tweeted a link to the above article.  Given the National Library in New Zealand is making cuts to its curriculum loan service, seeking to replace it with online resources, I shared this link with the NZ librarians' listserv.  It provoked a lot of discussion about what librarians were noticing about their students' preferences for print.  Some decided to send the article on to their English departments and others decided to create their own surveys of their students.

A1- Our Y8 Leadership Academy means our learners are actively involved in making a difference in our wider community #edchatnz
— Bridget Compton-Moen (@BridgetLCM) February 26, 2015

@MSimmsNZ Absolutely! http://t.co/pJQKUtP8oz Here's a wee bit of what the girls have blogged abt over past 2 yrs. We wrote our own handbk
— Bridget Compton-Moen (@BridgetLCM) February 26, 2015

This conversation illustrates the friendliness and helpfulness of the Twitter community.  I was having a flick through Twitter last night and there was an #edchatnz conversation going on about "developing students as actively involved members of our communities".  I noticed Bridget's tweet and because our Year 5/6 team leaders are starting their own leadership programme thought it would be worth asking if she had information she could share with me.  I was delighted with the information that has been shared on her class blog and I'm sure our team leaders will be too.  

I've followed Bridget on Twitter for a while but she is a teacher in Christchurch and I live in Hamilton.  The beauty of Twitter is that I can learn from the experiences of people like Bridget and Joyce and Annemarie, who aren't geographically close and who aren't doing exactly the same job as me.  It broadens my knowledge and exposes me to ideas that excite me.

Unconferences, Twitter and ANZ 23 Mobile Things

Unconferences

On Saturday I am responsible for a 60 minute "unconference" run as part of the SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand) Waikato/BoP AGM.  I am basing it on the "smackdown" part of the educamps I have been to.  I have been to several educamps (unconferences run by teachers) and have enjoyed them immensely.  To have the opportunity for free p.d. about a variety of great ideas and funky new tools...what can I say, I'm addicted.  

I hope that things go smoothly in this first try of an unconference for librarians.

Twitter

I was thinking about what I should share at the unconference and my love of Twitter was my first choice.  Two years ago I attended a SLANZA conference and two of the keynote speakers, from Australia and the U.S., both raved about Twitter.  Up to that point I had considered Twitter to be for people who really wanted to know what Lady Gaga had for breakfast.

So, I decided to give it a go and I have never looked back.  Twitter is an amazing opportunity to tap into the wisdom of librarians and educators from around the world.  You can follow amazing, professional people you may otherwise not have access to.  I think of the people I follow as being my personal curators.  They are all sharing links to the best articles and videos they come across, in additional to adding their own thoughts and ideas.

I try to follow a range of people from the education sector - librarians, teachers, principals, I.T. experts.  I also follow people in the U.S., U.K. and Australia as well as NZ.  It broadens my horizons and exposes me to lots of new ideas.

I was thinking of examples of what I have gained from Twitter and I'd have to say that it is all Twitter's fault that I am nervously anticipating Saturday's unconference.  All of the educamps/unconferences I have been to I heard about on Twitter.  Here are two more examples:

1. At morning tea today I had a chat with the assistant principal at our school.  We were discussing TED talks and I was able to discuss a talk she mentioned because it had been tweeted about a few weeks ago.  Felt good too!
2. A few of the NZ educators I follow have been discussing timelapse on Twitter and showing examples of what they've been filming.  Because of this I am now working on a timelapse of the library at lunchtime to use to promote the library on the school website.  

If I've inspired anyone to have a look at Twitter, here are a few people to follow to get you started (I've limited myself to ten librarians and ten educators):

Librarians
@MSimmsNZ - Me!
@lisaoldham
@EstherC
@librarypaula
@zackids
@joycevalenza
@heyjudeonline
@buffyjhamilton
@gwynethjones
@jenniferlagarde

Educators
@mrs_hyde
@Juliet_Revell
@dukelyer
@dakinane
@PalmyTeacher
@barbs1
@Allanahk
@sharpjacqui
@rmbyrne
@anniemurphypaul (a journalist not an educator, but she writes about how we learn)

If you actually need a few tips about getting started in Twitter, that leads me nicely to my last topic today...

ANZ 23 Mobile Things

This sounds a bit like a bank app...but it's not.  It's the Australian/New Zealand collaboration of 23 Mobile Things, which is a "self directed online program to learn more about mobile technologies that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other".  I'm really keen to follow this, if I can fit it in.  But all you really need to know that is that Week 1 deals with...Twitter!  I love the slides by Ned Potter about why you should use Twitter.  If I haven't convinced you then check him out, he says it better that I do.