If moral purpose is job one, relationships are job two, as you can’t get anywhere without them.
Fullan, 2001, p. 51
In Whitaker and Zoul, we suggested that nothing in our profession is as important as relationships, by stating, “If the three most important words in real estate are ‘location, location, location,’ an equivalent in the realm of schools would be ‘relationships, relationships, relationships.’ ” (2008, p. 78). The importance of intentionally building and maintaining positive relationships with our colleagues simply cannot be overstated. All successful educators know this and work to establish positive relationships not only with the students they teach, but also the parents of the students they teach, and the colleagues with whom they work. This focus is not a variable between connected and unconnected educators; both groups of educators are masters at focusing on and forging positive relationships. The difference, however, lies in the fact that connected educators have an additional network of people with whom they interact regularly and with whom they also establish positive, productive relationships: members of their learning network who work beyond the walls of their own school and/or district.
The research on the necessity and power of excelling in the area of relationships is vast. When writing about emotional intelligence, Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee (2002) emphasized the importance of relationship management. Marzano, Waters, and McNulty (2005) identified relationships as one of the 21 responsibilities school leaders must fulfill to positively impact student academic achievement. In discussing the concept of the soul at work, Lewin and Regine stressed the importance of relationships as a way to feel more connected to a deeper purpose, resulting in a feeling that “they are part of a greater whole, a web of connection” (2000, p. 27). In the classroom, of course, relationships are of paramount importance. In a meta-analysis on student-centered teaching, Cornelius-White (2007) found that the essence of a student-centered teacher consists of the teacher exhibiting warmth, trust, empathy, and positive relationships. Barth (2006) wrote about the importance of establishing both congenial (polite, friendly, positive) relationships with our colleagues as well as collegial (collaborating and conversing about our practices as educators) relationships. Finally, leadership experts Kouzes and Posner (2003a) emphasized that caring about those with whom we work is essential to our effectiveness. They established a framework for cultivating and maintaining positive relationships that consists of seven keys: (1) setting clear standards, (2) expecting the best, (3) paying attention, (4) personalizing recognition, (5) telling the story, (6) celebrating together, and (7) setting the example. These seven characteristics of positive relationship building are central to the success of educators everywhere, from those serving in urban settings to those serving in remote, rural areas. Although successful educators are found everywhere excelling in these seven areas, we have found that they are especially pronounced in the lives of connected educators.
Relationships are of vital importance in the lives of all educators; we are in, perhaps, the most people-oriented business of all, and, ultimately, it is our people not our programs that will dictate our level of success (Whitaker, 2004). Educators who make the biggest difference in the lives of the students with whom they interact are likely the ones who have established the most positive relationships—not only with the students themselves, but also with the other educators to whom they are connected within and beyond the walls of the school(s) they serve. Connected educators work intentionally to establish positive relationships with their immediate co-workers; they also seek out professional colleagues around the globe with whom they can exchange ideas, share stories, grow, and learn and are equally focused on the relational aspect within these interactions. They make time to regularly connect with members of their learning network via social media platforms, but they also find ways to meet in person to connect face to face whenever possible. Finally, connected educators look for ways to get the students in their schools and classrooms more connected to other students in other schools across the globe. They know that being connected is important for them personally and professionally and should be equally important for the students they serve. Although this chapter focuses on the connections we make as educators and the relationships we build through these connections, it is also important to note that many connected educators have extended this world of connectivity, connecting not only as educators, but also by connecting their students to students around the world through Twitter, Skype, blogging, Google Hangouts, and other means.
“Relationships are of vital importance in the lives of all educators; we are in, perhaps, the most people-oriented business of all, and, ultimately, it is our people not our programs that will dictate our level of success.”
Bryk and Schneider (2002) were able to establish a connection between the level of trust in a school and student learning. In short, their work indicates that although trust alone does not guarantee success, schools with little or no trust have almost no chance of improving. Bryk and Schneider (2002) found that schools with a high degree of relational trust are more likely to raise student academic achievement compared to schools with lower relational trust. They list four signs of such trust: (a) respect, (b) personal regard, (c) competence in core responsibilities, and (d) personal integrity. In another study, Sebring and Bryk (2000) found that schools indentified as improving score high on levels of trust and cooperation among adults in the building, with students reporting that the adults care about them. On the other hand, in schools experiencing declining or flat scores, teachers are more likely to say that they do not trust one another. Clearly, trust is at the center of all relationships. We develop deeper and long-lasting bonds with those people who we trust. There have been several studies conducted examining what constitutes trust and how to determine its existence. Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (1998) identified five key components to measure trustworthiness:
“Schools with a high degree of relational trust are more likely to raise student academic achievement compared to schools with lower relational trust.”
In our experience, educators who have successfully connected with a significant learning network and have benefitted from being associated with such a network exhibit these five traits themselves and connect with other educators who exhibit them as well. Finally, in an earlier book, 4 CORE Factors for School Success, Whitaker and Zoul offered what is called our own “Top Ten Trust Traits” that great educators share in common: “be there, show you care, provide resources, communicate regularly, involve others, celebrate success, value diversity and dissent, support innovation, address underperformance, and demonstrate personal integrity” (2008, pp. 98–99).
All of the above Ten Trust Traits—with the possible exception of number nine, addressing underperformance—are ones we have written about in this book already or will write about in this and subsequent chapters. Connected educators value trust. They are highly trustworthy people and demand that those within the learning networks are also trustworthy. They rely on their colleagues near and far for various forms of support and expect those colleagues to rely on them as well. They have found that taking a chance and trusting another educator halfway around the world almost always pays dividends, resulting in a new idea, a better way to do something, access to a new resource, an opportunity to connect students from the two schools together, and most importantly, a relationship with someone they would not otherwise have met had they limited their learning network to those toiling by their sides daily in their schools. Such educators trust that the extra effort will be worth it in the long run and trust that the person they are connecting with professionally is someone with whom they can interact in a safe and open manner.
In the first chapter of this book, we suggested that becoming a connected educator starts with, logically, building a personal and professional learning network. This can actually be a bit of a scary proposition, at first, for many educators. They are not sure whether they can trust the people “following” them. They may not trust that their own tweets are actually worth sharing. They may fear that they will never be able to grow a large enough P2LN to actually learn anything that will truly impact their professional lives. They may even fear the “safety” of Twitter, thinking that someone could be interacting with them with ulterior motives in mind. For connected educators who stick with this learning process, these fears eventually fade away, primarily because of the trust they sense from the connected global educational community from which their learning network is comprised. They have learned to trust that their followers, by and large, are people much like them, who are simply passionate about what they do and want to do it as well as they possibly can. They begin to trust that no one will think badly of anything they post in a tweet, in a blog, or anywhere else, whether it is a resource they are sharing, a photo they are showing about something from their school, a quote they enjoy, or an opinionated comment on a current issue in our schools. They come to trust in their network as a group of accepting, supportive, non-judgmental professionals who are there to enrich, not damage, the profession and those who serve in it. It requires a great deal of trust to “put yourself out there” in front of the entire world, sharing your photo, your biography, your opinions, your ideas, your resources, your schools and classrooms. Thankfully, we know of almost no circumstances where this trust was violated in any way within the online educational community. Moreover, once this sense of mutual respect and trust is established, the possibilities are endless in terms of what can happen to positively impact others and be positively impacted, in return.
In their book Encouraging the Heart, a work largely about relationships in the workplace, Kouzes and Posner shared what they called their “Seven Essentials of Encouraging” (2003a, p. 15). In this framework for encouraging others, the second essential they described in detail was “Expect the Best” (p. 18). Connected educators tend to be people who both personally and professionally “expect the best” from those with whom they associate. They expect a great deal from the students they teach, the parents of these students, the colleagues working alongside them in their schools and districts, and even the members of their extended learning networks. In return, they expect just as much, if not more, from themselves. They put a great amount of time and effort into the professional relationships they establish and find that, often, this investment of time and effort is well worth it.
One way P2LN members expect the best from each other is by calling on them whenever they need support. If, for example, one person is searching for ideas to transition to a 1:1 learning environment, he or she expects to receive assistance from the learning network to which he or she is connected. It might start with something as simple as tweeting out a call for help, asking for ideas, resources, and contacts. Often, the person will ask that members of the PLN retweet (RT) the request for assistance so that this initial plea may eventually make its way to thousands of educators across many learning networks. The PLN member who sends out the request relies on and expects at least several members of their PLN to respond to this request, actually taking time to consider it, offer help directly if they can, or send it to other colleagues asking for help if they cannot. In turn, the educator sending out the call for help fully expects to return this favor at some point in the future, likely sooner rather than later.
Another way educators expect their learning network members to be there for them is when they have a specific professional development need and they know someone in their learning network has the capability to provide expertise. Oftentimes, such educators contact a learning network member directly, via email, phone, text, or a Twitter direct message (DM) asking if the person could actually visit their school or district to lead a training session on an area of expertise in which they have had success. Connected educators tend to answer this call and provide support in some way if at all possible. We have asked several members of our learning networks to participate in professional learning events we have organized and they have always been ready and willing to lend a hand and present to our groups when called upon. Once again, the person asking for assistance in this way expects to provide reciprocal support whenever called upon.
Another way we expect our PLN colleagues to support us is through Twitter chats in which we are moderating or participating. Connected educators often moderate or guest moderate hour-long Twitter chats, described in Chapter 2. Whether they are participating in or moderating a chat, it is not at all unusual for them to ask colleagues they know with special expertise related to the chat topic to either join in the chat as a participant or even guest host or moderate the chat for the hour it is being conducted. Connected educators who make a difference through their PLN try to be available for such learning support opportunities whenever possible. As always, one good deed deserves another and the person being called upon to lead a chat on one occasion will often call on the person asking the favor to lead in a similar manner at some point down the road.
Another expectation we have for our PLN members, and that we hope they have for us, is simply that they are available to listen when we need an ear. Often as educators we run across a situation that arises in our classroom, in our school, in our district that strikes us as both important and urgent. It may be a situation we are facing with a student, a parent, a supervisor, or a colleague. At times, instead of turning to someone within our current organization for advice, it behooves us to seek out someone from our learning network who can offer an outside perspective into the situation. In times like this, it is not uncommon for us—and other members of our learning networks—to pick up a phone and call a trusted PLN colleague for support. This support typically consists of mere active listening followed, perhaps, with a suggestion for how to proceed or simply some ideas to consider. As in the cases above, the person placing such a call fully expects to be on the other end of the situation at some point and, as a result, always makes him/herself available to PLN members who need someone to help them think through a problem they are facing or an issue they are working through.
“At times, instead of turning to someone within our current organization for advice, it behooves us to seek out someone from our learning network who can offer an outside perspective into the situation.”
Connected educators have high expectations for everyone with whom they interact professionally—and even higher expectations for themselves. When they need assistance of any kind from a member of their learning network, they are not afraid to ask for such help and, frankly, expect to receive it. Learning networks are fluid groups and, over time, we welcome new educators to our network while others drop out. Dedicated members of personal and professional learning networks are not spending this much time in addition to the many hours they put into their regular work day merely for social purposes or to see how large their PLN can become. Instead, they are committed to this endeavor purposefully. They fully expect to get better at what they do as professionals and grow both personally and professionally by connecting with their PLN. If they find a PLN member is not contributing anything of substance or has ceased being active in the community completely, it is not uncommon to “unfollow” such members at some point so we can better attend to those members who expect a great deal from all PLN members and expect even more of themselves, in return.
A criticism we have heard from some educators who are not connected outside their local workplace and who may not fully understand all aspects of being connected is that they do not have time to waste keeping up with people they do not know online via Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, or any other virtual platform. In our own experience—and the experiences of hundreds of other educators we have connected with outside our immediate work assignments—nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, we have found that our external learning network is every bit as important as our immediate learning network and that many parallels exist.
In a typical school, a teacher may work with, perhaps, 40 other classroom teachers. In some school districts, a principal may work with 10–20 other principals and assistant principals across the district in which they serve. A superintendent may have a few assistant superintendents with whom s/he works closely and even a local superintendents’ group of neighboring superintendents who meet periodically to discuss issues they face in common. In each of these cases, two points come to mind. First, these numbers are not enough to support all the learning and skills we need to acquire. With access to such tools and knowledge so readily available to us in a connected society, it strikes us as ineffective and inefficient not to take advantage of such an opportunity. Second, we have found that our extended learning network is not unlike these more immediate learning networks in that there are some within each network whom we become closer to than others. There are some we turn to more often in both networks than others. There are some in each instance with whom we forge not only close professional relationships, but also close personal relationships. Being connected with other educators around the world in an online community of any kind does not exclude you from establishing close personal, as well as professional, bonds.
If someone follows 1,000 or more educators on Twitter, that person will obviously not become personally connected to all 1,000, even though they may, periodically, glean some insight into education from everyone they follow. We maintain that this is not unlike the regular workplace. Even if you work in a school with, say, 50 other educators, we would surmise that you are not especially close with all 50. Instead, you may have a close-knit bond with perhaps ten of these colleagues and an even tighter bond with the few who are on your hallway, or who teach the same grade or subject as you. This same ratio holds true with online PLNs. If someone follows 1,000 people on Twitter, we would venture to say that they follow 100 (or 10%) or so very closely, and of this 10%, there are perhaps around 50, or 5%, with whom they have established a very close partnership, one in which they would feel comfortable calling the other individual to ask a favor or expect to be called upon in return. In essence, the relational aspect to online PLNs is very similar to—and every bit as important as—the relational aspect within our school settings. Teachers and school administrators who are outstanding relationship builders in the workplace are also likely to excel in this area with their PLN. Similarly, those in our schools (a small percentage, to be sure) who are crummy at relationship building are not likely to be the ones on Twitter every night interacting with a following of 10,000 PLN members. Chances are, they are not all that interested in connecting with other educators in their spare time or, if they do, they quickly find that they are not establishing close relationships in this milieu either.
But for those educators who do value the professional relationships they establish in their own schools and then seek out additional professional colleagues with whom to interact, the rewards are limitless and much like those they have established in the workplace. We know of hundreds of instances in which people who have never met in person have become close personally. One PLN member offered his personal cell phone number to Jeff to give to his college-age daughter who lived 1,000 miles from home but very close to this PLN member. He said, “I’m a father, too; I get it. Tell her to call me 24/7 if she ever needs anything at all the entire time she is here.” This, from someone he had never met! Todd has actually co-authored a book with someone he has never met in person and would never have known at all if not for his decision to build a PLN. Jimmy has offered his home to more than a dozen educators from around the world who have passed through his neck of the woods for one reason or another. In addition, each of us has contributed small donations of money and time to PLN members in need or causes our PLN members were supporting.
Interacting with PLN members in a largely “virtual” manner may seem, at first, to be an impersonal way of interacting, growing, and learning. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything in our jobs comes back to relationships and finding a way to make a personal connection, providing a personal touch to the people with whom we work. Our jobs are too demanding and our responsibilities too great to not take advantage of both the collegiality and the congeniality of our colleagues. Educators who are outstanding—whether they limit their professional connections to those they work alongside in person or whether they include a network of outside experts of 1,000 or more—always place relationships at the forefront and never forget the personal touch, not just the professional obligation, of the relationship.
“Interacting with PLN members in a largely “virtual” manner may seem, at first, to be an impersonal way of interacting, growing, and learning. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
In every school we have visited that exuded a positive and productive school culture, the educators working within that school setting consciously found ways to celebrate the work they were doing, their students, their school community, and each other. Connected educators find ways to celebrate with their PLN in much the same way.
Celebrating with our learning network colleagues can take many forms. Often, these are very quick and simple things learning network members do to recognize each other and to highlight the good things that are happening within their schools or in their own careers. When something good happens at a school where a PLN member works, colleagues in the PLN are quick to tweet out these good happenings to everyone they know. When a member of the PLN receives any type of individual recognition, again, fellow learning network members are quick to highlight them publicly, letting the world know of their accomplishment. Although most PLN members focus 80% or more of their online communication on strictly professional items, there are occasions when they share personal news about something good that happened in their family or about a personal goal they recently accomplished, such as running a marathon, losing weight, completing an advanced degree, or even traveling to a bucket-list location. In all such instances, PLN colleagues are excited to share in this joy and often spread the word to their online network through a simple tweet.
In addition to these quick and easy ways to celebrate each other, PLN members who have established close relationships online ultimately try to find a way to connect in person and simply celebrate their professional friendship in a face-to-face meeting. Over the past few years, it has not been uncommon for each of us to meet up with fellow PLN members whenever we are traveling to a professional conference, another school or district, or even, at times, when traveling on a personal vacation. In doing so, we have found that we are not alone in this habit of seeking out our PLN members’ company whenever we are in their vicinity. We know of hundreds of educators originally connected solely through Twitter who went on to meet together in person far from their home location to attend dinner together, attend a professional sporting event together, or present at conferences together. Such in-person celebrations speak to the power and endurance of relationships originally created online with other passionate educators around the globe.
At the national level, even the federal government in our country is jumping on the bandwagon by celebrating connected educators. The Office of Educational Technology (OET), in the Office of the Secretary of Education, provides leadership for transforming education through the power of technology, including working to help educators across the United States become more connected to each other. In 2012, they organized the first ever “Connected Educators Month,” which takes place in October. To read more about this celebration of connected educators and watch an excellent five-minute video celebrating connected educators with insights into the topic from highly connected educators around the country, please visit this link, Celebrating Connected Educator Month, 2014 at http://connectededucators.org/tag/connected-educator-month-2014/ (Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, 2013).
In our list of “Top Ten Trust Traits” shared previously, the trait of valuing diversity and dissent was included as something we do if we wish to be viewed as trustworthy and something we look for in others in whom we trust. Connected educators tend to be trusting educators and part of this trust includes trusting themselves enough to actively seek out P2LN members who look, act, think, and speak differently than they, themselves, do. Moreover, such educators trust themselves and their P2LN members to exchange ideas and opinions that are completely honest, even when they know not everyone will agree. Valuing diversity and dissent in the composition of our P2LNs and the conversations which take place therein is a key to learning and growing within a learning network environment.
If all we do in building and expanding our network of educational colleagues is find more educators who think like we do, look like we do, and hold the exact same job title we do, we are not likely to grow and learn, which is the primary impetus for creating a PLN in the first place. Educators who have successfully made the leap into the connected environment have done so by actively seeking out educators of all backgrounds, including race, gender, socioeconomic status, urban/rural settings, roles or job titles, political leanings, age/experience levels, and nations of origin. Our schools and classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse places, mirroring the greater trend in our societies overall. To the extent possible, our learning networks should reflect this diverse composition as well. As a result, many connected educators intentionally endeavor to connect with people from all walks of life. Although their network may well consist almost exclusively of people related in some way to education, you will probably note that any educator connected to a thousand or more people online likely counts within that number high school teachers, middle grade teachers, elementary school teachers, administrators, higher education professionals, parents, consultants, writers, and even politicians who have exhibited an interest in educational issues. The wider they cast their nets when seeking out learning network members to connect with and learn from, the more diverse and rich their learning will be, with perspectives from a variety of lenses represented. Although any educator with a substantial number of PLN members certainly includes among that number many who hold similar jobs and similar professional interests to their own, they know that it is important to learn opposing points of view and gain varying perspectives on issues; they seek not only those who might validate their thinking, but also those who may challenge their thinking in positive and productive ways.
“If all we do in building and expanding our network of educational colleagues is find more educators who think like we do, look like we do, and hold the exact same job title we do, we are not likely to grow and learn, which is the primary impetus for creating a PLN in the first place.”
In addition to actively seeking to connect with a diverse collection of educators whom they can trust as fellow citizens wishing to make a difference, connected educators also strive to engage in professional discourse through public online forums that are marked by honesty, including, at times, dialogues marked by respectful disagreements, debates, and dissenting points of view. In our experience, this is actually one area in which a great deal of work remains to be done. Quite often, such conversations occur on Twitter and can become viewed as a bit of an echo chamber in which everyone participating is already connected in some way and tends to largely agree on the topic being discussed. There are even some highly connected educators who are known for not necessarily being open to opposing points of view when serious issues are up for discussion. Still, the most respected and successful connected educators find a way to welcome diverse points of views in any conversations in which they participate. They are not afraid to speak their mind openly and not afraid to respectfully rebut a fellow educator’s point of view. They know that almost everyone involved in the conversation ultimately has the same goal in mind whenever they are discussing an issue that affects education, which is “What is the best course of action for the students we serve?” However, they also know that honest, reasonable, intelligent educators can have opposing—and legitimate—points of view about precisely what is best for kids. Very seldom do we find in our profession that we are faced with simple, black–white, yes–no, all-or-nothing situations. Ours is a world filled with gray—not just black and white—and a world comprised of not just science, but also art; as a result, we know that those with whom we interact will not always agree with our way of approaching a problem, implementing an innovation, or monitoring our schools’ progress. Instead of shying away from such professional conflict, connected educators tend to embrace these occasions as opportunities for growth and honest discourse. By doing so, they honor the profession itself: by modeling how we want our students to engage in intellectual debate.
To be completely honest, we suspect that most educational PLNs as a whole are more alike than different. After all, educators who tend to go above and beyond the required amount of hours necessary to fulfill their job obligations to seek out additional avenues for professional learning tend to have much in common. It would follow, logically, that such educators who connect outside the workplace to continue growing will be similar in many ways: they will be passionate, hard-working, energetic, curious, reflective, and collaborative-minded professionals. Having said that, in our experiences, we have found many educators possessing these traits who work in distinctly different environments and who come from widely varying backgrounds; thus, we encourage you to broaden the scope of your PLN to include members with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
As Fullan (2001) noted in the quote introducing this chapter, you cannot get anywhere without relationships. Connected educators know this as well as anyone and work to create and maintain positive and productive relationships with the people they see on a daily basis, in addition to the people they connect with on a regular basis.
Follow 5: These five educators from our PLN stand as models in the areas we have written about in this chapter: never forgetting that ours is a people-focused profession and nothing is more important than the relationships we create with our kids, our parents, and our colleagues. We have listed their names along with their Twitter “handles.” We encourage you to follow these exemplary educators on Twitter and interact with them to enhance your life as a connected educator. Here are short insights from these experts in the field on the value of serving as a connected educator who focuses on relationships first:
1. Rick Wormeli (@RickWormeli). Education writer and consultant, Herndon, Virginia. Rick is a key contributor to Standards-Based Learning Chat on Twitter (#sblchat), Wednesdays, 8:00–9:00 CST. According to Wormeli,
Faculties in which the majority participate in the national conversations of their fields and profession are much more successful with new building initiatives and instructional growth. These faculties have larger, healthier perspectives, and they have a much wider repertoire of resources upon which to draw as they face new challenges. They realize they are not alone in their efforts, and in turn, this inspires courageous acts of pedagogy. Seriously, we cannot be brave or creative with what we do not have. Twitter and online communities of discussion facilitate all these positives readily, 24/7. We get access to the wealth of insight, practicality, and successful issue wrangling on any subject from respected colleagues, even teacher/principal heroes, from around the world, and it’s all free. What a blazing comet of education fire and wisdom I would have been today if I only had Twitter and similar communities back when I first started studying teaching in the late 70s! Think of today’s students whose teachers take every opportunity to participate in these communities—Wow, what learning, what achievement!
2. Jennie Magiera (@MsMagiera). Digital Learning Coordinator, Chicago, Illinois. Jennie is a regular contributor to #mathchat and #edchat and blogs at www.teachinglikeits2999.com. According to Magiera,
Being connected is more than a follow on Twitter or joining an online forum. It’s being brave enough to ask questions, share ideas and wonder aloud with others. I value the connections I make both face to face and virtually not only for the ideas I glean but also the action we take following the connection. The ability to learn, try, fail, iterate and try again with colleagues can have an incredibly positive impact on our practice.
3. Dennis Schug (@DJrSchug). Middle School Principal, Long Island, New York. Dennis is a regular participant in the following Twitter chats: #IAedchat, #aledchat, #arkedchat, #colchat, #nyedchat, #ptchat, and #satchat. According to Schug,
Today, every educator must be courageous in rising to the challenge of pursuing excellence as 21st Century Learning Leaders. We now have an unprecedented obligation to support, motivate, and invest in our students, our colleagues, our communities, and in one another, in ways that must transcend classroom walls. There is no substitute for face-to-face interactions and the role personal relationships play in inspiring and challenging our professional growth, but being receptive to social media communities as avenues for transparent connections makes the world smaller, refines resources, and expands potential for all Learning Leaders. Using social media removes walls and eliminates time constraints to reveal opportunities for personalized learning that keeps focus on those who matter most: our students.
4. Tara Copeman (@copers). Assistant Principal; Edmonton, Alberta. Tara regularly participates in #edchat, #edtech, #techchat, #abed, and #atplc. According to Copeman,
My greatest love about being connected is the ability to create and maintain collegial relationships across time and space. Whether creating new connections online then the thrill of meeting in real life, or meeting in-person at an event and being able to collaborate well beyond your conference, Twitter becomes a low-risk forum to extend your network of experts. It also allows you to tap the shoulders of experts without feeling like you are putting them out—everyone has time for a response in 140 characters! It is through our humanity that we connect to others who share our passions in order to exchange ideas and resources so that we both are enriched in the process.
5. John Wink (@JohnWink90). Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Tatum Independent School District in Tatum, Texas. John regularly participates in #satchat, #IAedchat, #edchat, #wischat, and #txeduchat. According to Wink,
Participating in chats and striving to model connected learning is not staff development; it is thought development. Learning with others through social media helps simplify the complexities in education. By connecting with educators across the world at any time of day, I lead my own learning in a personalized fashion. Thanks to my PLN of virtual colleagues, my knowledge and leadership have increased exponentially.
Find 5: We have found these five online resources to be particularly useful in reflecting on the power of relationships, particularly with members of your PLN. These are links to resources that we have learned about via our own PLN and that we have used ourselves to improve some aspect of our job performance or expand our thinking in this important area:
Take 5: We conclude each chapter by recommending five action steps you can take to get started or continue on your path as a connected educator. Here are five steps we suggest you take to make the most of your relationships with your learning network colleagues: