Waiting for the great tweet forwards

Herbert Puchta learning to tweet

Herbert Puchta learning to tweet

herbertpuchta @Harmerj becoming aware gradually.

@herbertpuchta It was @burcuakyol who taught me. Well, she is actually teaching me. And pleasant it is.

Mixing IATEFL and politics, they ask me what the use is, I offer them dogme and my usual excuses,
one tweet forward two tweets back,
will tweeting and blogging in Scott Thornbury’s session get me the sack?
Well here comes the future and you can’t run from it
and If you’ve got a blog I wanna be on it,
waiting for the great tweet forwards.
In a perfect world we’d all tweet in tune,
this is reality but we’ll all be tweeting soon
(Jim Scrivener and Herbert Puchta already are)
join the blogosphere  while you may,
the revolution is just another tweet away,
waiting for the great  tweet forwards!

The revolution is just a tweet away

The revolution is just a tweet away

Sing along to the tune of Billy Bragg’s “Waiting for the Great Leap forwards:) , the youtube link below. In many ways the events of the last two weeks (ISTEK,  Harrogate etc)  make me think that something very exciting is happening in our ELT world! There is an aspect of  twitter which makes people focus on positive things and the energy that this creates is enormous. I wonder how many other teacher communities or professional communities in general there are on twitter that have the same kind of  focussed creative energy as the ELT community. Is there something to do with the world wide nature of the ELT profession that plays a role in this? Is it connected to enjoying the English language and the playfulness involved in working within 14o characters? Is it because twitter  is a vehicle for achieving a strong sense of community? Whatever it is, if feel likes a great tweet forward.

Enjoy the song. I invited Billy Bragg to Czechoslovakia on the eve of the first democratically held elections in 1990 and along with Michael Stipe of REM and Nathalie Merchant of the 10,000 Maniacs they did two wonderful gigs in Olomouc and Prague. This was one of the songs that Billy sang, a previous version though, he’s always changing the words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FknxIkLbn7E.

and see Gavin Dudeney’s blog on this here and my response, it really feels like the landscape has shifted!

2 thoughts on “Waiting for the great tweet forwards

  1. Hi Mark!
    I really like what you say about “the landscape shifting” or as other tweeters have said “the world is becoming smaller”.
    It is so amazing what can be done thanks to technology and specifically Twitter: and it is great to have Herbert Puchta now as well, as you mention!
    (And my musical side: wow – Billy Bragg, Michael Stipe AND Natalie Merchant? Wow!!!)
    After ISTEK and IATEFL Harrogate, it seems like in the ELT world, “the times they are a-changin'”…. to the very best!
    I am very happy to be a part of this and I thank everyone in the ELT world for everything I learn every day.
    And thank you, Mark, for your fantastic blog which I read with great interest!
    Kindest regards,
    Vicky

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *