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"#Edchat began on Twitter three years ago. Like dog years, three years in social media time is much longer. Back then, there were far fewer educators exchanging ideas on Twitter. Twitter was only beginning to emerge as a serious method of collaboration for educators. Celebrities dominated the network and got great media coverage about their tweets. Serious use of Twitter by educators for collaboration was never covered by the media. It was not media worthy."

"Of the various professional development opportunities available, social media reigned supreme as the most popular way for educators to keep themselves up to speed on current issues in the education world. And while the report does note, "Most survey participants were pooled from social media websites, resulting in a sampling bias," other sources of information educators use to stay afloat extend beyond social media--Internet search, blogs, academic/education conferences, and news articles all topped 70% (see graph to the right)."

"Now, there are more than 70 education-related chats on Twitter (see a list here, from retired teacher and librarian Jerry Blumengarten, @cybraryman1), like #ccss (Common Core State Standards), #mathchat and #gtchat (gifted and talented)-not to mention parenting chats. While principals like Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_principal) and Joe Mazza (@joe_mazza) are leading a movement to use Twitter for teacher professional development and family engagement, Twitter has also become a rich environment where parents form valuable bonds with one another, regardless of geographic or other boundaries."