Over the last week I have been able to spend a lot of time learning from those people in my social network because I have been laid out with a back problem. Surfing the internet helped hours of time pass. One of the things I was intrigued with is how my network has grown in the last year. Not only grown but expanded outside of education. When I first started growing my network, it was only educators but now I think I have a little of everyone in it. I use tools like Twitter and Facebook to organize and communicate with my network.
Facebook has a great app called Friend Wheel. The app allows you to connect all of your friends in Facebook. When I refreshed my Friend Wheel it reminded me of a Keynote session at UTC last summer. Ewan McInstosh talked how teachers/educators are very comfortable talking with one another but not with others. Seeing my new wheel shows that I am finally taking that leap outside the education world.
You don’t have to be able to read the names. Just look at the connections. Are you connected? What are things that you do to build your network and connect with others?
Life is a Maker Faire 
ooh, I can't wait to do mine!
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Good post. I agree educatirs need to get out of their comfort zone and talk to outsiders. I also believe it is just as important for “outsiders” to approach the education community to learn and offer help. I think that if the Ed world looks outside then the rest of the world will seek out Ed crowd. What if large school districts use the same tools as our best companies? What if our best companies offered school districts their best tools for free?
What tools do you use on twitter to manage your followers?
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INFP,
You bring up some great points. After all aren't we in public education preparing our students for the world outside of education? If there was a true partnership with education and business our education system would completely change. The question is how do you change the old regime?
I use TweetDeck to manage my followers. It allows me to group those I follow into various groups depending on what information I receive from the groups.
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