6 degrees of separation

The current world population is estimated at 7.4 billion people. It is amazing that any 2 given people might know each other. (The math is a little complex, but you can take a look here and here). It is really amazing when the world of so many inhabitants gets really small, really quickly.

In the summer of 1993, I went on a 6 week journey to Israel with my youth group. I was 17 and meeting other high school students from across the US, with me being the only one in my group from the Chicago area. These were some amazing connections that I made, and with the advent of the digital age, I was able to reconnect with a lot of old friends recently. One friend that I made is named Josh. He was from eastern New York state, went to Cornell, served in the Army, and now is a dentist.

Flashback to 1997 and I am in college. I am busy taking coursework for biology and education and singing my heart out in the Varsity Men's Glee Club and the co-ed a cappella group, No Strings Attached. In this group, I made some amazing connections, and because of email, at the time, and then social media, we were able to keep in touch over the years and even have a reunion concert. One of our directors, Carrie, was from Virginia, graduated with a degree in Music Education, was on Broadway in Sister Act, and is currently earning her MFA in Musical Theater Performance at Penn State.

What really caught me off guard is when I reconnected with Josh through Facebook, I noticed that I just missed his birthday. When I scrolled through the well-wishes on his page, I saw that my friend Carrie, Virginia, U of I, Broadway, Penn State, wished my friend from my Israel trip, Josh, New York, Cornell, Army, Dentist, a very happy birthday. Their friend in common through Facebook was me, and I did not introduce them...

This got me thinking about how I might take for granted the power of my PLN and how connected I am. I take it as an every day occurrence. Via Twitter, I am directly connected to approximately 2400 people. Via LinkedIn, I am directly connected to 754 people, but I am linked to close to 400,000 people in this network. I am constantly reminded that it is not what I know, it is what the people that I am connected to know AND who THEY know! It is amazing to this connected-ness at my fingertips to have someone help me with an issue, search for information, or challenge my thinking to help me grow, and vice-versa. I continue to work with my departments and share this ability to connect and share, and some of them have caught on and are sharing their experiences as well.

When I talk to my students about the information they are sharing, I remind them of the need to be cognizant of what they are sharing and with whom they are sharing. I tell them that they are writing their resumes and they don't even realize it. I try to convince them that what they do now matters and can have unforeseen repercussions, either positive or negative. You never know what might show up in a Google search during a job interview or application process. You never know who might know someone that knows you, for better or for worse...

I certainly never would have guessed that an Army dentist from New York state would know and be connected to my a cappella director from Virginia. I am glad they both liked me. :)

Following conferences on twitter

I had a teacher come to me after attending conference who was excited to tell me about the conference within the conference. She was talking about the use of the conference hashtag to discuss what a keynote speaker was talking about, finding resources from breakout sessions, and finding new colleagues with whom you can connect and from whom you can learn. Her excitement about the new possibilities of connecting and learning got me thinking about my experiences with conference hashtags and connecting to other conference attendees.

When I was talking with another teacher about a conference she will be attending, I described the experience of the other teacher and using Twitter and the conference hashtag. This new teacher is eager to learn new things and was excited by this potential addition to her learning. So she asked, how can I easily follow the hashtag?

My big conflict has always been wanting to use my iPad because of its portability, but needing to use my clunky laptop in order to follow the hashtag on twitter with ease. I love using tweetdeck to establish separate columns for specific hashtags and it allowed me easily know who was new to following me and any notifications and direct messages I might receive. The iPad Twitter app can be used follow a hashtag, but you would miss out on your general stream of people that you follow.

When I asked my PLN about this issues, some of the great people I follow made some suggestions:

Bob Schuetz and Megan Ryder suggested the use of HootSuite. I have used HootSuite to be able to post to multiple networks with one click, but rarely used it as a reader for the networks. It was a good idea and a functional solution because HootSuite has a good app available for both iPhone and iPad.

Megan also shared an idea of Nicole Ring and it blew me away. It was one of those ideas that everyone should be able to think of, but she put idea into practice and shared it. After I saw the idea, I just had to write about it and share it. Nicole's idea involved the iPad web browser and Tweetdeck. She suggested that you log in to Tweetdeck using the web browser, establish your columns as you would on the desktop version, and then save the tile to the home screen. VIOLA! You now have a home made iPad version of Tweetdeck!

I look forward to trying this out at the next conference I attend. I appreciate my PLN for sharing the great ideas that they have!