Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

For the broader culture, Twitter is usually perceived as a vast wasteland of gossip, rumor, and incivility. But teachers have transformed their corner of Twitter into something else entirely. Increasing numbers of teachers have been using Twitter chats for professional development. Most chats are specific to a certain subject, but some are regional, and others focus on specific student populations.

While this might seem like a surprising turn of events, there are several advantages to using Twitter. First, it makes it possible for teachers to find like-minded and similarly-situated practitioners. It is a convenient gathering place for teachers from a wide variety of disciplines, and the platform makes it simple for them to join together. It has established the critical mass necessary to accomplish the goal of having a broad enough community to generate useful content.

One of the best advantages of the Internet and web technologies is that they have levelled the educational playground making education and learning accessible to anyone anywhere in the world with a computer and Internet connection. Whether you want to pick up a foreign language or learn the basics of a craft from scratch, 'you Google it and you find it'. 

Becoming a better teacher is likely a big part of why you’re here.

Based on reader feedback, surveys, comments, and other observations we’ve noticed over the years, the vast majority of you are already ‘good’ at what you do.

Few incompetent professionals that consistently seek to improve remain incompetent. If you’re here–or at edutopia, or knee-deep in a book from ASCD, for example–reading and skimming and sharing and responding to ideas, it’ll be difficult for you to resist growing.