As an instructional coach and a very social teacher that's been in this county for 20 years, I'm one of those yammers that is often inviting folks from all aspects of our domain. I pick several folks from across the county every week. I have randomly and deliberately included folks from all dept and sections... A real cross-section of our ACPS learning community. A few have ignored me, but others are diving in... full force or slowly and cautiously. I think of yammer as a gateway tool to twitter! I hope so anyway. I see this as a closed, but yet engaging way of getting folks sharing across the county.Folks are sharing, asking questions and meeting each other! The closed aspect provides comfort to many... not sure why, but I have to accept where they are as all teachers must when looking at their classroom of students. I believe this is a form of differentiated PD. I think it will be fun and exciting, if we have our own "yam jam" (my version of a tweet-up) at our next all county event. There are many lurkers. I know... I speak to them on a regular basis. I've had folks actually ask me to post something for them. I personally don't understand their hesitation or fear of posting... but I understand the many levels of technology integration and we must try to be patient and encouraging. I've experienced the glazed eyes as people look at me crazily when I refer to twitter as an awesome tool for my personal learning network. But... the folks that are using Yammer, now perk up a bit and I see a bit of understanding in their eyes. As for me... I am digging the conversations and I'm grateful that they are happening! It's a step forward in understanding social tools for professional learning. (I suspect most of these users are also Facebook users for their personal lives as well) Thanks for blogging about your observations, Paula.
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