Here is the email I’ve just send to George Abbott, our new education minister in British Columbia. Let’s see if he responds.
Dear Mr. Abbott,
I’m an educator in British Columbia, in a small private school called Stratford Hall. I’m pleased to hear that you have been appointed to your new role. I have a suggestion for you, among many you will receive over the next few days.
I’d like to extend an invitation for you to observe a new form of professional development for teachers which is occurring through the use of social media. A collection of a few thousand teachers use the social media tool Twitter for collaboration and sharing of ideas and resources. I’d like to show you how this works, and how this could be a powerful initiative for British Columbia educators to take the lead.
The learning that has occurred for me through this tool has been amongst the most powerful and deep training I’ve ever done. I can easily say that I learn more through an hour of interaction through Twitter than 10 hours of typical professional development. I can talk to the greatest minds in education directly, or spend an hour discussing the best way to teach polynomials.
If you are interested, check out #edchat on Twitter by following this link:
I’m happy to give a more complete explanation when you have the time.
Thank you,
David Wees