2017 VSTE Annual Conference

I began my teaching career in 2001. Back then, overhead projectors vastly outnumbered SMART boards, cell phones were simplistic, and the only social media available was myspace. In short, connecting and collaborating did not happen digitally. Teachers and students in 2017 are different then they were then. They are more connected to the digital landscape than ever before. It is rare to encounter a teacher, much less a student, that does not have a smartphone. Students, and teachers as well, utilize social media to legitimize every facet of their lives, except for their content learning. How do you use this attachment to social media to build connections with students, faculty, and the community both within the local school and the global community?
Twitter can be used as a platform to quickly share information, highlight successes, and provide and receive feedback from the global community. In this digital landscape it becomes increasingly important for us to become more professional in our use of information, especially as we look at the profile of a graduate and what a future ready graduate looks like in 2017 and beyond. I will explore the use of twitter as a platform to build both teacher and learner agency and to build connections with students, parents as well as both the local and global communities.