Subtitle – if you go down to the social media today you’re sure of many pleasant surprises.
This post is a follow-on to my short comment on using Twitter for professional development and as a response to an email question from a colleague:
I am willing to learn new tricks but I do not understand how Twitter can help with networking and development. Is it not a forum for chat? Please give me the 2-3 salient points for the use of this medium.
I thought I would describe a typical scenario interacting with Twitter.
One of the people I follow @leoselivan made a comment which was directed at #ELTchat. I had taken part in my first Twitter group chat #EAPchat the day before (read a summary of that written by @seburnt). So seeing another hash tag with chat in it I decided to have a look.
Unfortunately the chat had finished but one of the moderators had tweeted a link to a #ELTchat podcast. Apart from very good podcasts #ELTchat also post summaries of previous chats so I perused with some interest a chat on functional language. This led to a link on using silent films in class by @theteacherjames.
So in the space of about one hour I had a very enjoyable ramble picking up many teaching ideas, an idea for this blog post and a future blog post about your first lesson plan! Value for money I’d say.
EFL Notes 
Glad to see you’re getting yourself (and others) into the PD fold on Twitter. This post, by Sandy Millan, might be a good one to point colleagues to when asked this question. http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/twitter-for-professional-development/
great thanks for info Tyson!
It was great to read about your ramble! The Internet is often accused of distracting us because of the endless hyperlink opportunities, but I think that sometimes we can discover fascinating and interesting new things if we stay focused. I just hope my blog was one of them!!
I was also pleased to hear that you listened to the podcast, and I hope you found that enjoyable and interesting too. I’m really looking forward to your entry in the ‘my first lesson plan’ blog challenge!
All the best, James
hi james
thx for commenting, yes at first i was skeptical about twitter but now have come round!
the podcast i listened to was very informative and really well done, congrats!
mura
Hi
I am glad my tweet has led you to lots of useful ideas and resources.
Hope to see more of you on Twitter
LEO
hey thx for dropping by leo!
looking forward to future fruitful and fun twitter interactions =)
mura