Confessions of a Lurker

My name is Jessica Thompson and I'm a lurker.

For those of you unaware of what a lurker is, a lurker is someone who views content on the internet (blogs, tweets, forums, etc.) but doesn't contribute.

I've been a lurker for some time because I didn't know how to interact with people who were sharing this information.  This week, I was introduced to some tricks and tools to help me move from a lurker to a contributor.

The first tool is Diigo.  Diigo is a social bookmarking website that allows users to collect, annotate, and access information on a variety of platforms including Apple and Android!  Diigo has their own YouTube channel (DiigoBuzz) that has videos for users to learn more about using Diigo.  Here is a video that provides a brief overview of some of my favorite features:

In the past, I've been using Pinterest to store articles that I've found to be worth sharing with my class or others, but Diigo's interactive features make it much more helpful.  I love the highlight and sticky note features because it allows me to take the notes on the article and share them with peers.

Speaking of peers, the second 'tool' that I was reintroduced to was Twitter.  I've been a Twitter user since March 2011, but I've never really contributed to it in a professional manner.  I've been a lurker.  I use the term reintroduced because I have started to take a more professionally active approach to Twitter.  Two of the hashtags that I've decided to start following are #EdChat and #BusEdu.  #EdChat seems to be a broad education category, there were posts about classroom management, technology, and common core.  It was nice to see a wide variety of posts because it was refreshing to be able to go from one thing to the next.  The second hashtag, #BusEdu, was more personalized to business education topics.

As a result of what I saw in the hashtags, I decided to stop lurking and start participating!

Now, it's okay to take baby steps - in fact, I encourage it.  Find one or two (maybe three!) things you want to focus on and make it a habit.  Once you have become comfortable with them, add new things!  Last week, I learned about Feedly.  This week, I'm using Feedly more consistently, taking those articles that resonant with me, adding them to my Diigo account, and tweeting them using #EdChat and #BusEdu.

Whatever you decide to do, I encourage you to move from lurking to participating.  It really is a great way to learn more about being a better educator.