Remember the great experience of #ECOO12? So many great Ontario Educators all descending upon one location in Richmond Hill. So many people all in the same place enjoying the presentations, keynotes, and panel discussions. Those who were unable to make the trip could live it vicariously by following the hashtag.
In addition to the formal events, there was the powerful connections made among the attendees in the hallways, at lunch, in the exhibit hall, and during the fabulous social events. You’d like to think that these connections make for powerful opportunities that last beyond the event. That’s always the hope of conference organizers.
In addition to the renewed friendships, there’s the new ones formed on the spot.
Doug, meet Sandy. Sandy, Doug.
How do you maintain the strength of the connections and expand people’s networks after the event?
I’ve written before about my thoughts of “Why #FollowFriday is so important“.
For a while now, I’ve gone through the exercise of identifying Ontario Educators who are actively tweeting and recognizing their efforts on Friday mornings with my own “FollowFriday” postings. It’s not that they’re the only important contributors but there’s something special about making those Ontario connections.
Twitter easily facilitates global discussions. But the Ontario Curriculum and current issues are the ties that bind we Ontarians and are not to be ignored.
So that’s why you’ll see messages like this:
from me in the early hours on a Friday. Early, so that it doesn’t clog up the Twitter stream for those who don’t care – at least in the Eastern Timezone. Sorry Europe and beyond.
I had a couple of interesting private Twitter messages today that helped frame this post.
1) “Didn’t you use to post the #FollowFridays quicker?” – Yes, I did. I had a pretty good set of scripts that harvested names for me and made it easy. Twitter has changed the rules about how to access messages so I’ve had to scrap the original plan. My current routine is a little more manual that I’d like so it does take a bit to pull this off but I’m working on it.
2) “When I log into Twitter, seeing the other Twitter IDs clumped with mine is just like a face to face introduction. I follow them immediately.” That’s another activity that’s become organic with this. Some people when they see a message with their name in it elected to reTweet the message. I never thought of that but really like it.
What it does is amplify the concept. It’s almost a decree to follow some new people. And, doesn’t that allow us to expand the Ontario Network and continue the Ontario conversation?
If you missed the list of people identified this morning, I created the Storify below.
[View the story “#Active Ontario Educators” on Storify]
The complete listing of Ontario Educators is stored in two Twitter lists.
- Ontario Educators (498 members)
- Ontario Educators 2 (64 members and growing)
To get yourself added to the list, send me a message or complete the form located here.
Related articles
- Social Stories (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- Perfect Ontario EduTweeters (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
- This Week in Ontario Edublogs (dougpete.wordpress.com)
doug --- off the record 
