This twitter chat is now over. Please click here to read the transcripts from the chat. Thanks!  PLP’s new Twitter 101 eCourse includes a live Twitter Chat experience. To give participants a true feel for the fast paced and fun nature of twitter chats, we want to open up this live chat to everyone! The Twitter Chat will be this Sunday, April 21st at 8PM Eastern and will feature the hot-button topic of Standardized...

Twitter’s power as a personal learning network made coming back to school after the winter break more tolerable for Lisa Noble and her Canadian elementary kids. The highlights included tweets from space, transmitted by astronaut and social media maven Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut who landed on the international space station just before Christmas. And then there was littleBits…

Texas ed tech leader Tim Holt shares a story from the writing process of his first book to demonstrate that what we often preach about personal learning networks is true: Help is out there when you need it.

Teachers are hungry for professional learning but their eyes are often bigger than their pocketbooks when it comes to professional conferences in distant cities and pricey online courses. Connected educators can feed themselves, says Becky Bair, who’s not busting the bank this summer but staying home with Twitter and Google Reader.

I’ve been thinking about where I’m finding my best support for my own learning these days. While I’ve been going to my Twitter network and saving links, resources, and graphics to help me plan a new technology integration course for teachers, I’ve found that it’s actually my community of inquiry within Powerful Learning Practice that has lead me to the deepest learning. I think I owe it to my learners to help them understand that while Twitter networks might lead them to incredible contacts and resources, our classroom community will be where they can get down and dirty with some really messy learning.

Technology opens the door, but it’s the support and encouragement we find in authentic learning communities that connects us. Commitment is hard. Giving up outdated but comfortable ways of doing our work is hard. We all need encouragement to stay on course. Many of us are finding that support online.