The wonderful things Twitter can do

Twitter has given my career so much over the past few years that I routinely tout its benefits to students, colleagues, and friends. I also like to show how teachers can benefit while speaking at various educational technology conferences. I think that most people outside of our educational circles, don't realize how beneficial it can be for them.

Too many times people and news agencies focus on the negatives and never on the positives. Some people think that Twitter is nothing but celebrities posting ridiculous bits of information about the minutiae of their lives.

I have met some amazing educators in the past few years and some have become dear friends. They not only help me professionally but we also collaborate on a number of different projects.

Twitter helps me professionally but also allows me to open doors for our students as well. Last year alone we were able to speak to an American Olympian while she was in Sochi, had a discussion about rights and responsibilities with a class in Chile, and had numerous Mystery Skypes with classrooms around the country. This allows students to see outside of their own small section of the state and opens them to the much larger world.

Recently, I wanted to do something interesting for a video project. I tweeted out asking for volunteers to record themselves running in front of world famous landmarks. 

Live near a world famous landmark or know someone deployed? Contact me for a short video project I'm doing. Volunteers worldwide. Pls RT
— Kyle Calderwood (@kcalderw) October 27, 2014

I received a wonderful response and had volunteers from around the globe participate. Most of who responded, I had never met before. It shows that if you surround yourself with amazing people, wonderful things can happen. So a huge thank you to all who helped me complete my video and also another thank you to all the amazing folks that I follow. Keep striving for change and excellence in your lives.