You know I love twitter, the people I follow have given me help, advice, resources, a smile and even non-educational chatfrom time to time but I've not always been a twitterer. Before I started uni I would read through forum posts giving advice for potential student teachers. When you are waiting on beginning teacher training you want as much information and advice as possible. It becomes a need. Yet sometimes on such teacher forums you will come across a certain negativity and that is what has sparked this post.
Every so often a tweet will appear highlighting forum posts that seem negative and today this happened. This prompted me to air the idea that there are two types of teacher on the internet. When asked to explain this further my initial reaction was to call the UN for diplomacy advice but then I started to think about it in more depth. This is what I really love about twitter, the challenge that others in my network give me. Rather than a quick tweet response I asked for thinking time and thought about it.
Thinking hasn't changed my mind about the idea that there are two distinct groups of teacher on the internet. When there are two groups of people with a shared passion, in this case teaching, there will always be crossovers there are those who sit in the middle but at either end there are the polar opposites. The unfortunate truth is that on reading many posts on teaching forums there is a high level of what may be considered negativity particularly toward new ideas. I don't believe that this is a result of an innate negativity on behalf of the poster but rather from a wariness about things that are unknown to them. Wariness can cause fear. Fear of additional responsibility, fear that your skills will not match requirements and a fear of being left behind.
On the whole a well built twitter network is a supportive, encouraging place where you are challenged to develop your thinking to new levels. To date I have never had a negative response to anything I have said, nor have I felt silly for asking a question which has an obvious answer. More importantly I have never seen this happen with anyone in my network (and I spend a lot of time on twitter). The sad thing is I have read responses on forums that were far from supportive including scoffing at typing errors.
One of the main differences is that twitter is more instantaneous and far more conversational. Forums do not have this feature. I really hope that as twitter attracts more and more teachers those who are wary will embrace the positive ethos and leave the negative thoughts unaired.
What do you think, are there two types of teacher on the internet?
