I have found that as I introduce Twitter to staff members, they are usually amazed at the amount of K12 information available to educators and support staff. They can quickly become overwhelmed with so much relevant information coming in. It’s like attending a top-notch conference every day, with no time to digest and reflect unless a system is figured out. They become immersed for a month or so, but the time comes when they start wondering how to keep track of all the links to the collection of data they want to store and share with others.

There are many good sites for organizing your links. I am using Pearltrees.  Basically I create a “Pearltree” and then I put “Pearls” into it, for example, I have a Pearltree labeled QR Codes and within it I have put lots of links to QR information.

I enjoy the Pearltree site. I have connected my Pearltrees account to my Twitter account. Each time I tweet a URL a pearl is automatically created in my drop zone, located at the bottom of my Pearltree screen, and I can then put the pearl—the link I tweeted out—in the appropriate Pearltree.  That’s pretty nifty.  I enjoy reading the comments that users leave about my Pearls and I like the fact that I can follow trending factors by what Pearls people are “picking” from my site. And finally, it’s great to be able team up with other people on particular Pearltrees within my site.