Twitter What , Why and Who I Follow

I see John Connell , tongue in cheek , is pondering why we blog and Tim Buckteeth (sic) is looking for the three reasons why we use twitter.

I am amazed that at the moment three hundred people now choose to follow me on Twitter - though I don't do regular trawls through the follow list - it may be that the list is full of automated spambots of one kind or another. You know waiting to steal my id or tell me unprompted about latest bestest thing I don't want to know about. At least up until this point I have had no tweets of the kind I get spammmed with in my inbox. I am receiving no kind offers of friendship, surgery or non-prescription stimulation.

However, I do know from the feedback I get that there are some great real people on the list too who have offered many kind and helpful comments - and if you can be bothered reading this thanks for the follow.

Why and What I Post

I tweet (I hate this term) about the daily grind and excitement of working deep inside the educational establishment , domestic fun and when I find a tool or site that looks interesting.

If it needs more explanation or I feel I might want to go back and look what I am saying later - I use a Blog Posting for this. If I analyse my twitter use further I'd say -

The daily grind -tweets - are to relieve the monotony ;-) but I usefully get feedback from kindred spirits and good ideas too from round the globe and from those in Scotland who pick up what is going on.
Domestic fun ones are usually aimed at few folk who follow me locally in Glasgow
The when I find a tool or useful something- is when I hope I give back to my PLN.

Why and Who I follow

I follow far more folk on twitter than I do say with Google Reader or other RSS reader and my network now extends far beyond people I know or was aware of through my interest in learning -I think this has been main impact of twitter.

Unfortunately for my sleep patterns - I have always suffered from an eclectic nature I have just finished a stint looking after half of all the vocational areas in Scotland -my brain is packed with every imaginable occupation and their training and development needs . I also looked after Core Skills so I am interested in how we engage with vulnerable learners too and the development of core and soft skills in life long learners.

Who I follow is in reality pretty erratic - I set out to follow those in my immediate area of interest which is vocational learning and assessment ( I take this to cover on-line learning , e-portfolios, vles ) and new work/life skills like digital literacy and anyone who looks to have found ways to turn around the learning and teaching paradigm.

I am interested in business, social change and entrepreneurship at all levels. I do believe that education is about income earning and I do believe that entrepreneurship is catalyst for change. If you are Scottish or UK twitterer in one of these groups likely to get a follow.

But I love fun , travel, music and mucking around with technology and I may be following you just because one day you said something that caught my eye on Twitter Search.

I stay with you if you have conversations I am interested in and tweet occasionally - if you document everything in your life and broadcast to all rather than use direct messages to your closest followers - or suddenly become some sort of sales person then I quietly drop the follow.