Recently I mentioned how, many (many) years ago, we’d found that different folks flourished in different contexts for classroom communication. My takehome was that you should be eclectic in where you look, what you read, etc. I realized another outcome of this yesterday as well.
Different people flourish in different media. Some are great to converse with. Some are great presenters (the regular returnees and featured speakers at conferences). Some create wonderful online media. Some are thoughtful bloggers (see my or others blogrolls), and, now, some are great tweeters (cf Jane Hart’s wonderful compilation of over 500!). Of course some of the most interesting folks flourish in several media, but what’s interesting is that some seem more prolific in some media versus others.
What’s the take home here? Keep trying new media for your own self expression, find a format for staying in touch with those you want to follow, and keep experimenting. I, for instance, am trying to figure out who of the 500 tweeters I should be following, without getting swamped. My best approach is to see who the ones I follow are following. You will find some folks have a style you aren’t interested in, or their personal beliefs intrude on your ability to read them, or something, and that’s to be expected (one of my learnings is that not everyone has to like you personally). However, there are still a lot of great thoughts, pointers, and more going on out there.
It’s too much of an opportunity to be ignored. Start small; follow a few more blogs, set up a twitter account and follow the tweets of a few people. Gung ho or slow and steady, but you can’t just wait. You gotta keep learning, or I reckon you’re dead. Too many zombies as it is. Go forth and learn!
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