Expert Searching with social media

In this post I am trawling through various Social Media platforms looking for content curated and presented by others dealing with Inquiry Learning.

Twitter search journey by author 

Searching with Twitter

I generally use different Social Media platforms for professional and private conversations if I have a choice. Twitter is generally me as a Teacher-librarian or as a cerebral person, not the day-to-day banal musings I save for my Facebook profile. I started my search of twitter with #inquirylearning and found a few interesting things but it didn't appear to be a used tag. I then tried #inquiry-based and noticed a lot of entries coming up tagged simply as #inquiry. I had resisted using #inquiry from the start as I figured it would yield political results about the government inquires being held systematically throughout the country, but I was wrong.  

screenshot of Kath Murdoch's
Twitter profile by author

A name I had seen before, many times in this enquiry, popped up. Kath Murdoch's twitter feed is quite prolific and she has put a lot of work into sharing great inquiry learning tips and articles with the global community, it is a must read for all teachers.

Searching with G+

Like Twitter, I tend to use Google+ for professional networks and learning (stay tuned for Australian School Library Book Chat Community hopefully going live next year which I will be moderating with fellow QUT TL Faith Hage). Searching simply Inquiry on G+ wasn't very fruitful and instead Inquiry Learning produced some interesting communities and individuals. Below are some of the communities I've uncovered using the Inquiry Learning search on G+.

screenshot by author

Searching with Pinterest

As a visual person I really love the ability to curate images, it gets addictive. I keep a variety of work-related and personal Pinterest boards, but I'd never searched with Pinterest before. I really loved that the search function give you the ability to refine you search with pre-determined areas (like a controlled vocabulary), it gives you a heads up that you will find something. My Inquiry Learning board is a curation of interesting pins I have found and re-pinned for future use.

screen shot of Pinterest's search function by author

I'm leaving my Social Media search there as I have an aversion to using Facebook for anything meaningful - even professionals need an unprofessional outlet. YouTube is another great place to find curations on Inquiry Learning although the click-bait is at times overwhelming and you'll find that 'quick search' has turned into hours of video watching fun! I'm using Scoop It! in my next post on content curation, where there are also many Inquiry Learning boards available.  

Follow Dread Pirate Librarian's board Inquiry Learning on Pinterest.