Educators around the world are finding each other on Twitter to converse, exchange ideas and research.

Some argue this grassroots campaign will contribute significantly to developing best practice in education.

Others may ask how so, in 140 characters or less?

A common misconception is that Twitter aggregates only banal snippets - what a person's dog just ate and the like - while the utility of the site as a professional tool is overlooked.

Yet many educators were ''early adopters'', and a growing number use Twitter as an integral part of their personal learning network.

At times, education-related topics, or hashtags, such as #edchat, #edfocus and #edreform, are among the most discussed topics on Twitter worldwide.

At first glance, the Australian community of education tweeters is a motley bunch, yet the blend of public, private, rural, urban, young and old(er) plait themselves into a seamless conversation about education.

While the uptake by teachers has been significant, principals have been slower to get a handle on the site.

It is unclear if this is because of the disparity in numbers between teachers and principals, or a generation gap.

But there are exceptions. Where principals were once shrouded in a little mystery, some tweeting principals are electing for transparency, offering regular updates about where they are, what they are reading, links to rich material and their views on a range of topics.

Peter King (@Peter-J-King), the principal of Byron Bay High School, says Twitter allows him to talk to a range of people, spanning hierarchy.

''It's not about what level you are, it's about what you have to say,'' he says.

''Sure, there are some school directors on there, but there are also a lot of really clever teachers who are leading the way. I can learn by following them.''

King says Twitter is a way to find out what is happening in education everywhere, but also a way of putting Byron Bay High School on the map.

People have become interested in the school and ask to visit after discovering school initiatives on Twitter. Likewise, after learning what some educators are doing elsewhere via Twitter, King has invited them to visit IRL (in real life) to talk with the school's staff in more detail. King advertises staff positions on Twitter, asking followers to retweet the link.

''I receive direct messages from people all over wanting to talk more about the job and expressing interest; inquiries from other countries too, positions that were once only circulated internally.

''For me, it's always been about professional learning though, and I'm finding the best professional learning is free.

''Rather than attend a day workshop and just sit for six hours, this is real conversations with people at the cutting edge of innovation.''

King describes how at a recent conference, some attendees were interacting via Twitter with keynote speaker Pasi Sahlberg, the director-general in the Ministry of Education, Finland.

''I could tweet him right now with an education question and he'd respond. I mean, who gets to talk to Pasi Sahlberg? If not for Twitter, I couldn't.''

Denice Scala (@DeniceScala), the principal of MLC School, Sydney, finds Twitter valuable from a leadership perspective. ''One day I will be reading about developments in neuroscience and the next day I will find finance information relevant to the business side of the school, or read the latest from Harvard Business Review … and I don't have to go out and find the information, it finds me,'' she says.

''Twitter provides insight into what others are thinking, and your own thinking is provoked - four or five colleagues may read the same article via Twitter and come back with different thoughts.

''As a leader, it is important to understand different perspectives. Learning is not just confined to education, it enables you to link to other arenas.

''What I'm following is general commentary not about day-to-day life, but about bigger-picture scenarios. The real skill is in determining what you will read right away, later, or not at all.''

A study presented this year at the Sixth International AAAI Conference of Weblogs and Social Media, Grassroots Professional Development: How Teachers Use Twitter, found that through Twitter, teachers forge and maintain professional ties outside their local schools and, in doing so, become conduits for new practices and ideas to move in and out of their communities.

The study points to grassroots professional development as a foundation for education reform, and found that teachers who are using Twitter heavily for professional development are engaging in practices that position them well for leadership within the education community.

Stephen Harris (@Stephen-H), the principal of Northern Beaches Christian School, says he caught the vision of Twitter when attending a conference in the US, where he noticed how the conference was succinctly captured by people tweeting.

Not only was there no need to take notes, but it enabled broader discussion and analysis.

''It is the best professional learning network for educators,'' he says.

''They can pull in information from anywhere, and it goes way beyond the boundaries of ordinary budgetary constraints.

''It's my education tribe - where I connect with people in the UK, Finland, anywhere.

''If I go to Singapore, for example, I will build up my network there on Twitter before I go, knowing that network will support me … It's a worldwide network that every educator should access. If there's to be an Arab Spring of education, it's likely to come through Twitter.''

Kathy Phelan, the chief executive of Small World Social, a social-media consultancy and technology company, says that traditionally, educators would track published research and opinions, often delayed by significant periods of time, taking many hours a week to keep abreast of areas of interest.

''Twitter has simplified all this by allowing you to follow people who are thought leaders in your field, tracking their tweets that share their research, ideas, opinions, observations and discoveries,'' she says.

''It's meant the time of collection and dissemination of information has reduced dramatically, and the amount of research and information education practitioners can draw upon increased dramatically.''

Although Harris says he would not ''friend'' a student on Facebook, he is happy for students to follow him on Twitter and reciprocate the follow.

''There's no real relationship; it's neutral territory. If they want to read the education material I send out then that's good.''

Although privacy settings are less relevant if Twitter is used purely as a professional tool, it is worth noting some assuring news for those who struggle with privacy settings.

According to research published by the Pew Research Centre this year, people with higher academic qualifications are significantly more likely than those with lower levels of education to report difficulty managing privacy settings on social networking sites.