Did you ever notice how many of our most respected and acclaimed researchers/authors have thousands of followers and yet choose to follow very few? Here’s what I find puzzling: if they are not following their listeners how are they continuing to learn?

I realize this may come across as Twitter shaming and I am OK with that. I also realize that the people I’m shaming won’t see this post so we can be assured that their feelings will not be hurt. 

One of the most powerful aspects of Twitter is that it allows us to share our own thinking and learning, but perhaps more importantly, it connects us to other’s thoughts and questions. If some of our “big name thinkers” are only using it as a forum to share their thinking, aren’t they perhaps sending a message that they don’t need to engage with their learners/followers to continue to enlighten their thinking?

I used to begin my school year by telling my  students that they would learn more from each other than they would from me. They looked at me like I was crazy. The point being that sure the teacher/administrator/lead researcher has valuable knowledge and information to share and they will help guide the student/follower to other helpful sources of knowledge. But the true learning occurs when students take that new knowledge and kick it around. They test it. They ask follow up questions, compare it to their prior beliefs, and they check in with their peers to gain further insight(s).  And sometimes, when things get really fun, the teacher learns too.