#CLD419Tech

Vasiliki Rombos
Feb 16, 2017
2 min read

The clock reads 3:59pm, I hastily refresh the Tweetchat page and wait for 4:00pm. It's February 8th, and I am participating in my first online Twitter chat for my Children and Technology course, today we're focusing on how technology can benefit professional development for ECEs.

Other than using social media for my personal accounts, I had not previously thought that it could be used as a professional tool. This ideology specifically connects to my time in high school when my classmates and I were often told by our teachers that our social media accounts were not beneficial in anyway, which resulted in them being viewed as unprofessional in our eyes. Being introduced to this new idea of using social media as a resource surprised me.

Image free from Wix (2017)

At the start of the Twitter chat, I was initially overwhelmed by the pace and number of tweets that were being sent. However, as a frequent Twitter user, it did not take me long to become accustomed with the flow of replying, favouriting, and retweeting tweets with my peers. The only significant difficulty I experienced was keeping my tweets to 140 characters or less. Soon I found myself sharing interesting articles, providing ideas, and exchanging opinions with all my classmates, even some who I had rarely spoken to in person. I also had the opportunity to communicate with another Early Childhood Educator, a friend of my Professor's, who had joined our discussion.

These types of interactions are examples of the primary benefit of using social media for professional development, firstly, it provides a free platform that you are able to use in order to communicate with anyone, from anywhere, at anytime! Being able to meet others through social media, such as my Professor's colleague, also introduces Twitter and other types of social media, as a network for professionals to use, whether it is to simply meet others in their field or reflect and share ideas, theories, and perspectives (Dietze & Kashin, 2013).

When studying in a field as collaborative and broad as early childhood, it is important to find other professionals that share similar ideologies with you. These connections have many potential endpoints, such as volunteer and employment opportunities, which are especially relevant to many of us who will be graduating this Spring.

Learning to use technology, in this case social media, as a tool rather than a past time, is an incredibly useful skill to obtain and will reap more benefits for ECE students in the future by "providing them with a foundation to build upon in their practice" (Dietze & Kashin, 2013).

Image free from Wix (2017)

Overall, I found my first professional Twitter chat an enjoyable and enriching experience, I look forward to participating in more in the future!