What Our Scavenger Hunt Consisted Of
Our class was given the assignment of doing a Twitter scavenger hunt. What it consisted of was sharing a picture that was blurred or zoomed in of something we use during class or dealing with PLN’s and having others guess what it was. After that we were to follow Kyle Hamstra who was a guest speaker in our class and ask him an education based question. Then we were asked to participate in a Twitter chat about education and answer as many questions as we could. Once this was done we had to search education related hashtags and tweet about what we had learned or respond to someone else’s tweet based off of the particular hashtags chosen. We were then asked to find 20 new people to follow, and lastly tweet about what PLN’s meant to us.
With this scavenger hunt we were able to dive deeper into the meaning of PLN’s and learn more about what other teachers and students are doing inside the classroom.
What are Professional Learning Networks?
PLN’s are networks made up of teachers who stay connected with one another. These networks allow teachers to collaborate on ideas and assignments, gain new ideas, and stay up to date with things that are happening in the world of education.
In a blog post made for teachers it stated that “PLNs don’t just exist in the education world. They are important in all aspects of the business world, various vocations, and hobbies.” Which is very true today. Without the internet or sites that keep people connected we would not be where we are today.
Source: https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-define/
What I Learned
I initially felt overwhelmed about this assigment because I am someone who does not use Twitter regularly. I was nervous about tweeting things and felt that I would somehow mess up… I was wrong.
This Scavenger Hunt was a great activity that helped me become more comfortable using Twitter and allowed me to gain more insight on what PLN’s were. This activity also allowed me to connect with teachers and educational groups that were located in other parts of the state and figure out what was going on in their classrooms and schools.
I learned new about new hashtags that were being used throughout the state like #educolor or #cleartheair or #edtech and even gained new followers who shared similar interests with me.
Assignments Like This in the Future
I would do an assignment like this with my students in the future. It is very important for students to learn how to connect with others in terms of education and learning. Kids feel comfortable tweeting or posting pictures of themselves for personal reasons and matter, but not all kids know how to post or connect with others based on the things they are learning in the classroom.
Activities like this one will help students gain a whole new level of learning and will help them apply the knowledge they get inside the classroom to things that are happening in schools across the world.
Social Media in the Classroom:
