Catch and Release Twitter

Trout Creek

My colleague Jeff Nugent just returned from a week of fly fishing in Western Virginia, including the story of the largest trout he had ever caught – an 18-incher on Mossy Creek (picture of fish here). However, what I “caught” today was an interesting metaphor associated with his forced disconnect from being online 24/7. He said it took a couple of days to stop wondering what he was missing on Twitter, and then a realization that, just as there would always be fish swimming by 24/7 and he would only catch some (if lucky), so too it is okay to simply catch and release from Twitter, savoring those you reel in but not fretting over those you miss. This Tweeter creek will continue to flow and you do not have to fish 24/7.

Sounds like good philosophy…and I don’t have to fib about the ones I let get away!

At the same time, I am mindful of some points Wes Fryer made today in his post “Here for the Learning Revolution.” What is fantastic about the new twitterverse is the continuing conversation unfolding. You can miss some…but you can also get up to speed pretty quickly as you join back in. For instance, I blogged yesterday about the amazing unfolding of the Advocates for Digital Citizenship, Safety and Success, spearheaded by Vicki Davis. This conversation is continuing to unfold and now includes a Goggle Group page, a collective tag “ad4dcss” (with 28 sites tagged in Diigo in the first half day), a wiki, and a growing number of members. A TweetScan for “ad4dcss” shows 32 tweets in the past day. A conversation is beginning to expand about a critical issue that is capturing the passions of some great teachers. Please join in yourself! As Wes noted, conversations can begin in Twitter or one blog, move to another blog, circle back around to Twitter again, shift to an expanding wiki or other social media site, move to Elluminate or Skype, and even show up in face-to-face gatherings…such as our Monday morning coffee sessions at our Center for Teaching Excellence. While pieces may seem disconnected, a synergistic whole emerges. I find this invigorating and encouraging for our future!

Thanks, Jeff, for the great fish story and the even better life balance suggestion. And thank you, Vicki, for having the passion to make sure certain conversations DO take place!

[Photo Credit: Savethewildup]

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