This is a guest blog post from the TCEA 2016 Convention by Jamie Locklin. Jamie is the Director of Digital Learning in Hays CISD.
This year at the TCEA Convention, there is a Connected Lounge (on the first floor near the TCEA booth) to help facilitate learning and connecting for those who are both new and veteran social media users. Awesome spaces have been designed to help connect the education world on Twitter, Google+, the TCEA Social Community, and Facebook. Experts are available in each area to walk you through the process or just to have a conversation and connect with while at the conference.
In addition to this awesome space, there is a small teaching space where I was honored to hear the always-inspiring Dean Shareski present. Dean challenged us in thinking “What’s Your Story?” to remember that social media is “social” as its primary purpose and to not get lost in making it so “professional” that we forget that sometimes people just need “silly” or entertaining moments as well. Dean shared this video to help show how silliness is sometimes what bonds us and grows us closer together.
I honestly could not agree more, and in my session that followed his that surmised the work of Austin Kleon in his book “Show Your Work,” I furthered this thought. Educators need to remember that by sharing the messy process that is teaching and learning, it can make all of us us collectively better.
As Dave Weinberger would remind us, “The smartest person in the room is the room” and the smartest learning decision you can make at TCEA is to #GetConnected.
