With connected educator month coming to an end, I feel the need for a rant.
If we’re here talking about the value of connections again this time next year, then our detractors are right. Connecting with others online is just a popularity contest.
Being a connected educator is not about how many webinars you attend, the numbers of followers you acquire on twitter or the number of visitors to your site.
Seeing those numbers go up is surely good for the ego and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I haven’t enjoyed the further professional opportunities that go along with being a connected educator.
But really the kids in my class don’t care about how many times I’m retweeted or who reads my blog. They don’t want to know what conferences I have attended or workshops I’ve presented.
They want their time in class to be awesome.
So lets bring this back to something more pressing.
How has your practice changed as a result of being connected?
For me the value of being connected has been to always dream big or go home.
The parliamentary submission that my students made two years ago? The result of thinking about the work of a Diana Laufenberg Ted Talk. The Daily 5? @Kathryntrask. Running a successful classroom blog? The amazing @kathleen_Morris. Inquiry learning and my initial interest in the PYP @whatedsaid. Peeling back extraneous details to focus on learning – @sherrattsam
When I look back on the people who have had a major impact on my learning, I notice many of those teachers don’t post anymore or post infrequently. I know that unless they are on leave that they are likely doing amazing things in their classroom and I just don’t read about what they are up to.
Yet their ideas, forced me to think and re-think what I am doing.
Their ideas shifted my thinking and plunged me into action.
If reflection trumps connection then surely action is the winning hand.
Teaching the Teacher 
You could update your profile a little bit methinks – Wellington, New Zealand? At the end of the day it depends what your goal is and what you judge to be successful. And that means that it is judged about the number of twitter followers, the number of visitors and the number of blog hits that you get. For most educators thats the live and die rule. There are a few that don’t care (and yes I would put myself in that catergory). but as a rule of thumb thats exactly what it is.
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