#EduWin for 10/24/2016

                                            #EDUWin for 10/24/2016

Monday, October 24 was a momentous day.  I earned a series of small successes with the ability to change educators' views on education and professional development in my district.  

Social media continues to be looked at as more of weapon of mass distraction than as a tool to engage students and grow your Personal Learning Network (PLN).  In recent weeks, I had made some small gains in getting teachers on Twitter to grow their PLNs and connect with other like-minded educators.  These select few immediately began to see the value.

After working with continuation school teachers and setting them up on Twitter, I led a demonstration of Pear Deck.  Teachers were encouraged to leave their phones out and tweet about the session.  A number of them did so, all the while including @PearDeck in their tweets.  

To my delight, that evening, I received a few tweets from the "big-wigs" at Pear Deck thanking me for promoting their product.  As a result of their excitement from the Pear Deck/Twitter demonstration, dozens of teachers signed up to use Pear Deck.  Pear Deck took notice and sent a cordial email letting me know that my session ignited a wave of Pear Deck sign ups.  I quickly forwarded this to one of my principals who immediately took action and is now looking to get a site license for all teachers.  

The magnitude of the #EDUWin is highlighted by the fact that at a past staff meeting, a discussion took place in which many teachers expressed scathing opinions about the role of social media in education.  Within that context, the power of Twitter is clear, as a few simple tweets sparked a series of events that will continue the paradigm shift toward collaborative, connected education in my district and beyond.