I joined Twitter because my University wanted faculty to start using it to connect with learners. I hated it. But because I could see the potential benefits I signed up for a half day course. By the end of this I was part of a group, all talking about health care service improvement. Through this group I discovered the School for Health and Care Radicals and through their Tweetchats and webcasts my community grew. Jim began following me, so I returned the favour. Every week he sends me - and a bunch of other like-minded people - a tweet. When I was hitting a brick wall with one of my MAODE assignments, I sent out a "help me" tweet - and Jim replied. We Skyped. He set me on the right track and not only that, gave me the courage to transform my idea into reality.
In the process I had to wrestle with wikis. I remembered seeing Staurt, medical student, present his work on wikis in undergraduate medical training, so I joined the wiki group and sent him an email. Discussions on the H817 and H800 tutor group forums led to the germination of a research idea and after a few tweets to share resources Stuart and I are putting together a research proposal.
I've never met these people but they have helped me so much in my learning. So, when Jim tweeted a link to his TED talk on virtual communities of practice and his personal learning network, what else could I do but share it with you?