The final #edchatie of the 2011-12 school year took place this evening with a lively debate on the casualisation of the teaching profession. While it appears our secondary school colleagues are in a much more difficult situation, the chat tonight showed how becoming a teacher in 21st century Ireland is no longer the “cushy number”, it is often portrayed as. As one contributor said during the tweetup, “Permanent, pensionable, gone, gone”, alluding to the fact that neither of these “perks” are guaranteed for teachers anymore.

#edchatie has had some memorable chats throughout the year, mostly with a technology edge, e.g. Integrating Technology into the Classroom and Technology on a Budget. However, there have been other chats where the focus was on our profession, similar to tonight’s one. The chats have focused on government cuts to the education system, bullying and the Teaching Council.

21st Century Learning gets a few mentions from time to time and the theme of Learning Spaces came up more than once. We’ve also investigated digital textbooks and BYOD (Bring your own Device) to school.

The next #edchatie will take place on 27th August and topics can be put forward a few days beforehand. If you haven’t been on #edchatie yet, get a Twitter account now and start your journey. It’s becoming a cliché already because almost every teacher will say it, Twitter is the best CPD a teacher can get.

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