The power of the PLN

This past weekend I attended the annual TABS (The Association of Boarding Schools) conference in Boston for the second year in a row. While I frequently attend and present at conferences as part of my own professional development, this year’s TABS conference was a different experience for a couple of reasons that I would like to share.

After last year’s TABS conference, a few fellow educators (Hans Mundahl @hmundahl and Dan Marchetti @MarchettiDan) and I were interested in continuing the stimulating conversations and sharing we had been engaged in and did not want to simply go back to our respective schools and re-enter our same routines. We decided to continue the conversations and invite others to join us by meeting regularly every Wednesday night on twitter using the #TABSchat hashtag. The conversations that happened over the course of the year were incredibly varied, included people from a whole range of different schools and backgrounds and have helped me immensely to grow as an educator. I have “met” so many interesting and dedicated educators through #TABSchat and finally got to meet several of them face-to-face this past weekend at the TABS conference. ( @DJFTLL @bivey @watersatschool to name a few)   Even though we had only interacted 140 characters at a time prior to this past weekend, I got to know many of these people and consider them valuable members of my PLN (personal learning network).

If you are not yet convinced of the “power” of the PLN and twitter, consider the following. I presented a session at this year’s conference with two colleagues (Kim Sivick @ksivick and Thomas Steele-Maley @steelemaley) titled “Learning and Sharing with Educators Around the Globe.” I met Kim and Thomas through #TABSchat and exchanged tweets and emails with them throughout the course of the year as we kicked around the idea of presenting a session at this year’s conference. The first time I actually met them face to face and shook their hands was this past Friday when I arrived in Boston. These two awesome educators are people I probably would have  never met had it not been for #TABSchat and the power of social media for professional development.

If you are still on the fence about the whole twitter-thing as a tool for professional development and think you do not have time, I encourage you to reconsider. There are so many dedicated educators out there that are eager to connect and share ideas that you owe it to yourself and your students to make the time. You can start by joining me and others on Wednesday nights at 8 pm (EST) for #TABSchat. Who knows, it might even lead to a presentation at next year’s TABS conference!