Twitter is one of the latest and most popular social media communities.  In fact. Oprah just mentioned it on her show and the next day 1.2 million users signed up.  Now if only I can convince Oprah to do a shout out for English Spark.  Twitter is becoming huge and it is used in many different ways, but I want to discuss the value of twitter in respect to you as a teacher.  This is a powerful tool to you for networking purposes.

Twitter is extremely easy to get started on and it's free.  They want your location, a short bio, and a url if you have one.  Very easy, very quick.  Then you have 140 characters or less to tell the world what you are up to or thinking.  The big thing is getting people to follow what you have to say.  You in turn can also follow what others have to say.  If you see someone you think might be interesting, just click "follow" and you get their updates.  It's that simple.  There are many other tools and resources you can use with twitter for other purposes, but I will save those for another time.

Now how does this pertain to you?  Twitter can be another way for you as a foreigner in another country to find friends, students, or other teachers to collaborate with.  The trick is getting people to follow you.  It really isn't too difficult.  There is kind of an unwritten rule to follow someone who is following you.  Here is an article on how to use twitter and some other tips on successfully networking.

There are also many ways for you as a teacher to use twitter.  There are educational tools and applications that you can use.  Here is a link to some great ways to get started and use twitter successfully.

So this week if you don't have an account, I want you to sign up for one and start following some people.  Many celebrities have twitter accounts and it can be fun to see what they are up to.  If nothing else you can follow me and I in return will follow you.

Connect with Jason on