Parrot fashion

There is a story of a woman who wanted a talking bird so she went to the pet shop bought a parrot. After a few weeks, she returned to the pet shop and complained to the owner that the parrot wasn't talking. 'Does he have a mirror?' asked the shop owner, 'parrots love mirrors. They see themselves and start up a conversation'. So the woman bought a mirror and the next day she was back again. The bird still wasn't talking. 'How about a ladder?' suggested the shop owner, 'parrots love climbing up and down ladders. A happy parrot is more likely to talk.' She bought a ladder. Next day she was back again, because the parrot still wasn't talking. 'Does the parrot have a swing?' asked the shop owner. 'If not, that might be the problem. He will relax if he swings, and then he'll start talking'. The woman sighed, bought the swing and left the shop. The next day she walked into the shop and she looked very upset. 'The parrot died' she reported. The shop owner was shocked. 'Did the parrot say anything... anything at all?' he asked. 'Yes,' said the woman 'right before he died he asked me if they sold any food down at the pet shop.'

The point to this story is that you can spend your life looking into mirrors, worrying about your appearance; You can focus on ladders to try to advance your career; and you can try as many swings as you like to try to entertain yourself. But if you starve yourself of a social life, your relationships will die, and your life experience will be the poorer for it. We live in an increasingly connected world, which is profoundly influencing education. And social media are the enablers. Yet many teachers and students see social networking tools as frivolous entertainment or ego massage. They can be much more than that, and if they are developed appropriately, they can be valuable tools for education.

How many students and teachers are missing out on a broader social experience, because they have disengaged with social media? How many students have a narrower view of learning because they have no professional learning network to call upon? And how many teachers are failing to develop themselves professionally because they think Twitter and other social networking tools are a waste of time? It's true that Twitter can make you feel a little like a parrot talking to itself in a mirror if you don't give it enough time to develop connections and reach the critical mass necessary to become a useful PLN. But if you invest time and effort developing a network of critical friends and knowledgeable experts, it will pay you back a hundredfold.

In a previous blogpost I argued that Twitter is not about content, it is all about connections. There is more to learning than simply taking in knowledge, and more to a course than its content. Connections are important, because they lead to richer social contexts. The ability to connect into and engage with global communities of practice is unprecedented. The conversations to be enjoyed and insights to be gained on Twitter are immense, and their value is immeasurable. Developing your professional learning network is time consuming, but what is the alternative?

Well, I suppose you could always learn parrot fashion.

Main story by Bob Gass. Image source by Riza Nugraha



Parrot fashion by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.