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Professional Learning Network

Photo courtesy of twitter.com
I joined Twitter in 2009. Like most millennials, I used it to stay in contact with friends, scroll through memes, and share tidbits about my day. It wasn't until my senior year of undergrad that I actually created a professional Twitter account. I took a nutrition communication class that required I create an account and tweet out helpful nutrition tips several times a week. It stressed writing my own tweets over retweeting others. This was great, but I didn't really focus on gaining followers because I didn't interact much with the rest of Twitter. It wasn't until EDU776 that I truly started utilizing Twitter to expand my professional network. 

Field trips can be fun and educational, but they can also be expensive, hard to plan, and difficult to chaperone. One resource that I found particularly helpful was originally posted by Kara Wilkins and shared through Twitter by @WeAreTeachers. They post contained a list of 250 "virtual field trips" with links that take you right to sites. I think this is a wonderful tool because students of all ages can benefit from it. These "field trips" are interactive videos that cover a massive range of subjects that educate students without making them leave the classroom. As an added bonus, most of the videos on this list are free. If you want to take your class on a virtual field trip, check out the list here. 

Even though I've been using Twitter for years, one thing I had never tried was participating in a live Twitter chat. I had sort of a hard time finding an active one. Many hashtags I found seemed to be relatively quiet, even during scheduled chat times. But once I found a group and was able to jump in, it was very engaging. 
Personal photo of participation in an #espechat live Twitter chat

I had some difficulty deciding on what chat to join. Because I'm not a teacher, I had to accept that there would be some questions I wouldn't be able to answer. I chose a chat about physical education in schools because this pairs well with nutrition. If you saw my last blog post, you'd know that 61.8% of females and 77.9% of males in Generation Z are predicted to be overweight or obese adults. This is something that needs to change, and that change can start during school. 

Personal photo of participation in an #espechat live Twitter chat
After introducing myself and exchanging pleasantries with a few other accounts, questions and answers started rolling out. It went fast, but I liked the speed of it. I could read as fast or as slow, and could jump in anywhere. It was like any other discussion, except participants were all across the country responding in real time. 

Personal photo of participation in an #espechat live Twitter chat

Overall, I really enjoyed the Twitter chat. It was something new for me, but it's something I definitely plan to use again. I would love to find a nutrition chat, or even start my own. I think this type of discussion can benefit all types of professional fields. 

Follow @skylerhuspen if you'd like to see what live chat I join next!

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