As I continue to build my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and get more acquainted with Twitter, I joined up with some Twitter chats that are popular among educators. Although ideas are being shared constantly, Twitter chats are concentrated, hour-long discussions that are scheduled at a regular time each week and focus on a particular topic. Some are more structured, where moderators submit prepared questions for consideration (e.g., "Q1..." and all responses are tweeted as "A1..."). Other chats are less structured, although perhaps just as fruitful. Regardless of the format, every chat has a particular hashtag that all participants use to indicate their input (e.g., "#edchat" is education chat, "#mathchat" is math teachers chat, and "#tlap" is teaching like a pirate chat).
To stay focused on each chat, I used the website Tweetchat. This is a great and user-friendly site allows you to follow a certain hashtag and post in real-time. It also automatically adds the hashtag you're following to all of your tweets, saving you from the hassle of remembering to include it yourself. Tweetchat even has a drop-down list of all current chats on Twitter. I also used Storify, an digital curation tool (check out my post on curation here), to collect a sampling of tweets from each chat.
The first chat, in which I was an observer, was an #edchat from March 18th. #Edchat is arguably the single largest educational chat in the Twittersphere, so I was in a little over my head on this one. I wasn't aware of the topic at first, and by the time I figured it out, I realized I didn't relate to it very much. Instead, I collected other interesting and inspiring tweets with the #edchat hashtag in my Storify story. Even though I was clearly a newbie on this one, it was a great way to become familiar with the format and pacing of such a huge chat. Take a peek at this story below or by clicking here:
To stay focused on each chat, I used the website Tweetchat. This is a great and user-friendly site allows you to follow a certain hashtag and post in real-time. It also automatically adds the hashtag you're following to all of your tweets, saving you from the hassle of remembering to include it yourself. Tweetchat even has a drop-down list of all current chats on Twitter. I also used Storify, an digital curation tool (check out my post on curation here), to collect a sampling of tweets from each chat.
The first chat, in which I was an observer, was an #edchat from March 18th. #Edchat is arguably the single largest educational chat in the Twittersphere, so I was in a little over my head on this one. I wasn't aware of the topic at first, and by the time I figured it out, I realized I didn't relate to it very much. Instead, I collected other interesting and inspiring tweets with the #edchat hashtag in my Storify story. Even though I was clearly a newbie on this one, it was a great way to become familiar with the format and pacing of such a huge chat. Take a peek at this story below or by clicking here:
For my second chat, I participated in the California education chat, or #caedchat, that takes place on Sunday evenings. Unlike #edchat, #caedchat was very structured and had eight questions that the moderator posed during the hour. I was able to access the topic (Global Connected Classrooms) and discussion questions beforehand. These allowed me to gather my thoughts a bit, which turned out to be extremely helpful when trying to contribute effectively to the real-time conversation. Overall, this chat went much, much better than the first. I found some great inspiration and resources, connected with new educators in the local area and around the state, and even gained a few new followers. Take a peek at the Storify story below or by clicking here:
| If you're interested in observing or participating in Twitter chats for yourself, here are some handy resources: Weekly Twitter Chat Times A public Google spreadsheet with every education chat under the sun, organized by day of the week. Tweet Reports' Twitter Chat Schedule A sortable, user-friendly table of Twitter chats in all areas of interest (e.g., education, architecture, health & fitness). |