Sharing Good Practice
HOW TO BRING ORDER TO THE CHAOS
OF WEB-BASED SUPPORTS
BY: LORI BROWN
I
recently found myself in a twit over
Twitter. I was not getting along with
Twitter because of the way it made
me feel. My engagement with other
educators on the international social
media platform left me discouraged,
defeated, and overwhelmed. Why?
Because I didn’t have as many replies,
hearts, or re-shares as others. I only had
100 followers, while other educators in
my web-based professional learning
community had 10,000, 15,000, or
50,000 followings. I wasn’t as popular
as other educators on the platform,
and – channeling my middle-school-
age self – my feelings were hurt. Then
my adult self kicked in and I decided
to feel differently about it; to be
discerning and deliberate. work with educators, but in the end, I
used the resource to criticize, compare,
and crush my own momentum
and ideas. I let discernment turn to
discouragement, before I knew what
was happening.
The irony of this entire story is that I first
turned to Twitter as a way to keep up
with headlines, research articles, and
current news, that would impact my The role of an educator is already
overwhelming, intense, and crowded
with many needs, including student,
staff, and stakeholder desires, opinions,
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Term 1 Sep - Dec 2019
Perhaps the volume of web-based
resources, including social media
platforms like Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter, that can support your
teaching or leadership initiatives has
similarly left you feeling overwhelmed.
There’s too much to choose from, and
deep exploration of one network or
resource only makes you realize how
much MORE there is to know and
explore; adding stress to a full mind
and schedule.
Class Time
and
concerns.
The
web-based
resources we use to communicate
with these groups, and/or to shape
daily practice, should not add to our
intensity. Instead, said supports are
best embraced if they make our
tasks easier and more fluid. To that
end, it’s important for personal and
professional health, wellness, and
success, that we exercise caution and
intentionality with Internet supports.
Let’s briefly consider how we can do
this.
Principle 1: Be intentional
about the time for and
purpose of selected social
media platforms
Social media is helpful when it does
not drain us of our time and mental
energy. We’re all guilty of wasting
far too much time reviewing our