A wise professor once told us, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail.” My takeaway from that class was that teachers need a variety of tools, from basic strategies to more specialized ones. And adding tools to the toolkit is part of professional development.
Recently, I’ve added Twitter to my toolkit. At first, I must admit, tweeting seemed like a pleasant diversion, but I’m experiencing its potential for professional development and communication. The other evening, I “attended” an event that began with a podcast of background information on a specific topic. Then the participants (several hundred from across the country) began conversations by tweeting questions/answers, observations, comments, and suggesting websites for further information. I had another person with me during the event, so we had the best of both—social media and face-to-face interactions. How did I learn about this podcasting/tweeting event? From Facebook (another item in my toolkit)—not bad for someone who started a career in science with a slide rule.
More on Twitter as a classroom, communication, or PD tool:

• 10 Steps for Educators New to Twitter… from the Justin Tarte Life as an Educator blog
• Twitter—Expanding our classroom—shrinking the world from the Free Technology for Teachers blog
• Why Twitter Is a Teacher’s Best Tool from GOOD
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your PLN from Edutopia
• Twitter: Not Just About Ham Sandwiches from Educational Leadership
• A Twitteraholic’s Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter from Edublogger
• 10 Commandments of Twitter Etiquette from Vadim Lavrusik’s blog

Be on the alert for NSTA’s next tweetchat—join in (or just lurk) and learn.
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bekkchen/441704675/sizes/m/in/photostream/