The power of Twitter

I recieved a tweet yesterday from Frank Crawford (from HMIe) in Scotland. I met Frank a couple of weeks ago when he was in Sydney. Since then we have "met up" on Twitter. His tweet caused me to reflect on the power of Twitter for me professionally.

I've been using Twitter for a while and have found it a valuable professional tool. As someone who values networking for learning, Twitter has allowed the ongoing connection with others.

It has allowed me to:

• maintain connections with colleagues
• forge new professional connections across all sectors in education and beyond education
• keep up with developments in education and beyond
• be part of conferences when I couldn't physically be there
• share my own thoughts about conferences and forums that I have attended
• put questions out there about professional problems and get instant responses
• access key thinkers that influence my thinking
• put my own thinking out there and get responses.

The power of Twitter and the accessibility it provides has been quite significant for me. Twitter has given me access to people, knowledge and learning in a way that was not possible 5 or so years ago.

Come and Play - Video gaming

Whilst following up on some of the TEDTalk links referred to by Frank Crawford (Scottish Chief Inspector of Schools) in a recent presaentation, I came across a TEDTalk delivered by David Perry on video games. This is a contentious area for education, yet it has huge potential for learning.

In his presentation, David Perry uses a video, I'm a video game addict that was created by Michael Highland. The video is quite stimulating and thought provoking. It caused me to think about the blurring between what is virtual and real with the real becoming virtual and the virtual being real.

It challenges what schooling, teaching and learning could (and even perhaps should) look like if gaming were used in learning.

David Perry concludes his TEDTalk by highlighting that Michael Highland's video showed that video games can impact and move individuals. His closing comment was that the new paradigm of video games can open up new frontiers for creative minds that like to think big!

Imagine schools that did that.