Project #pstn: engaging pre-service teachers in the Twitterverse

Abstract

This paper discusses the beginning stages of the #pstn project. #pstn is seeking to introduce pre-service teachers (PSTs) to online networking to help fill in some of those (often huge) gaps between university courses and what actually happens in the classroom. The contribution of this paper is capturing the stories of the research team from very different perspectives around the early stages of #pstn and the insights these stories may hold for the broader practice of encouraging the formation of PLEs within formal education. Insights which suggest the existence of chasms between PSTs and the project members; between the nature of PLEs/PLNs and formal approaches to education; and, the culture of social media for personal and professional reasons. Chasms that need to be explored and bridged before a project like #pstn and perhaps the broader concepts of PLE/PLN can achieve broader success.