“Keep It Simple S…..” Do you know the last word usually stated here?

While the leftover pizza from Twizza (Twitter & pizza) is cooling nicely in the school fridge, I can’t thank enough to all the people who came and/or “tweeted-in” to our gathering this afternoon. An informal meeting of a few teachers turned out to be a wonderfully relaxed, very positive and productive introduction to Twitter for many of my colleagues at the school.

The place was like the United Nations of Twitter – we got tweet-ins from around Australia, Europe, UK, USA,  a ‘real’ visitor from New Zealand, even a person from Czech Republic who has used my 2 Minute Moodles with her teachers happened to be in town and dropped by. As Tim Hunt, software developer from the UK working at Moodle HQ here in Perth, walked in I said: “Here is an example of the power of Twitter – I am seeing this person for the first time in my life yet he walks in as an old friend.”

A large number of real, human connections were made in the space of just a couple of hours (even Sue Waters’ funny looking tweets could not stop all that 🙂 ) Once again, the 70:20:10 principle I have touched on many times in my writing, was so obvious and wonderful to watch during the event as my colleagues helped each other, handbook and laptop in hand, to have a crack at Twitter (thank you Simon, you are a bloody legend!).

We got about ten new teacher signups, polished a few bottles of wine, had about four family-sized pizzas and shared some great conversations. Best of all, we have experienced a number of those “a-ha!” moments that make Twitter, educational technology and the whole behemoth of education go – human ideas, creativity and willingness to learn. If we did not have these we are in the wrong business, sending the wrong messages to our students. Thinking and learning is vital, just “Keep It Simple SMART“.

It is amazing what a change of the last word can achieve.

Before I go and digest that last slice of pizza, I would like to offer you a free copy of “Twitter handbook for teachers” created for this event (hence the name). This was a well received document, why not share…

Below the document, you will find the Twitter names of my teaching colleagues who have just signed up with Twitter – feel free to follow and share the serendipity of Twitter with them, they will appreciate it.

Twitter Handbook for Teachers

Created by Tomaz Lasic (@lasic, https://human.edublogs.org)

Here is a list of people who attended Twizza and their Twitter names (most of them brand spanking new so please excuse lack of profile). Connect today 🙂