With so much talk about the upcoming education summit here in Iowa, the number of Iowa educators spending time on Twitter this summer seems to be growing exponentially.  I'm a big fan of connecting with educators from around the globe via social media tools, but there's something special about keeping up with what's going on at the state level.  How might a person interested in connecting with other Iowa educators keep up or get started?  Here are a few tips that have worked for me.

Follow one of the many Iowa education hashtags.

  • #iowacore is used by scores of teachers, administrators and education agency consultants to talk about ideas, articles and outcomes related to this statewide initiative involving state standards, pedagogy, leadership and community connections.
  • #iowa1to1 is popular with nearly 10% of the school districts in the state implementing a 1:1 student computer initiative.
  • #IaCopi is relatively new and is a way for educators to track work in the Iowa Communities of Practice and Innovation program that started this summer. 
  • #iowatl is a hashtag used by forward thinking teacher-librarians.  
  • #iaedsummit will heat up in Iowa later in July once the summit kicks off in Des Moines.
  • #iaedfuture tracks ideas related to the governor's world class schools proposed legislation
Check out a Twitter list.
  • My first list of Iowa educators on Twitter filled up quickly, so I had to create a second one and a third one.  I learned that a single Twitter list can only hold 500 users!  The three lists combined lists are exceeding 1000.  (Note: These lists are by no means exhaustive.  Please @reply me on Twitter if you'd like to be added.  Pre-requisite is a profile indicating your employment with an educational group in Iowa)
Join a Diigo group
  • The Iowa Core Discussion Group has been lively at times.  I anticipate it will become even more active as districts begin finalizing and completing their alignment plans during 2011-12.  
In what other ways are you following the latest news and commentary on education in Iowa?  Leave your hashtags, Twitter lists and other digital suggestions in the comments below.  

Update: 

  • In order to make this resource easy to remember and share, it is now available at http://bit.ly/iaedtweeps
  • Several new hashtags added (2/8/12)
  • A third Twitter list added (10/6/12)