If you are new to Twitter or Twitter chats, don't be intimidated. You can create an account and follow others without tweeting anything yourself. You can also lurk in a chat until you feel comfortable participating (no one will even know you're there!. There are education chats every day of the week. Wondering how to find a chat? Cybrary Man has an extensive Twitter chat directory. Some of my favorites are #miched and #mschat, but you can find a chat for just about every subject area and grade level.
Most organized chats meet weekly or bi-weekly and have a moderator and specific discussion topic. The typical chat format goes like this:
- Moderator greets participants
- Participants introduce themselves by name, location, and sometimes grade level or subject area
- Moderator poses a question by typing something like: Q1: Describe your ideal PD #miched
- Participants respond with: A1: I love when I get to choose #miched
You should use the chat's official hashtag so that everyone in the chat can see your responses.
In order to successfully navigate a Twitter chat without losing your mind, I suggest you use a chat platform that helps organize tweets by hashtag. It also filters out the rest of your twitter feed so you only see the chat. I use TweetChat, but there are others, such as TweetDeck and Nurph, that work just as well.
Moderators often archive the chat using a service called Storify, which aggregates all the tweets using that particular hashtag within a given time frame. That way you can review the chat later, since the tweets sometimes come so fast and furious that it's difficult to read them all.
I highly recommend this as a great way to engage with educators from around the world in personalized professional development. Participating in a focused Twitter chat can be an exciting, validating experience. Look for me on Twitter @teacherA5.
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