Monday, September 29, 2014

Twitter Connections and Non-Teachers

Last week my Twitter feed exploded because of a fantastic question by Rachel Seigel.

  1. Since u 2 r such tech wizards, do u know if either of your schools have makerspaces yet? Do other TDSB schools?
  2. I'm sure there are some. I can ask our TL who knows these things. But is the best TL around, so I'll defer . . .
  3. Is HackerSpace the same as MakerSpace? If so, we had it chez thanks to

I'm not even sure I captured all of the great discussion! I was grateful and thankful that Joel picked up on the thread to include Lisa, who mentioned David, who suggested the upcoming Maker Faire event.  I've heard Twitter criticized as an education tool because of the character limit - it's impossible to have a proper conversation or one in depth in 140 characters. However, this question connected a wide variety of people that might not have known each other before. I know that I added Stephen Gilbert to my list of followers after Joel Krentz included him in the thread.


Here's another significant point. Rachel Seigel isn't a teacher. Rachel is a Sales and Selection Strategist at Edu-Reference and she's also a person with a well-nurtured sense of curiosity and wonder. She came and visited my summer school class to explore how Minecraft is used in the classroom. It's important for educators to follow people other than fellow educators. Escape the echo chamber and learn from diverse perspectives. If it wasn't for Rachel's honest question, I wouldn't be attending MakerFaire Toronto next month. Thanks Rachel for teaching me through Twitter and jump starting these kind of conversations and connections.