Twitter Chats

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This week, I participated in a live Twitter chat, where people tune in at the same time to discuss a topic or answer questions with rapid short responses. The topic of the Twitter chat #edchat, was:  "Is the decision made by many states to return to an in-school model of education only, while ignoring the online benefits a sound policy?" 

What I enjoyed about the experience was the addition of a little adrenaline I felt. Because the chat moved fast and the chat only lasted for a short time (15 minutes), I was engaged and reading people's ideas and the debates the whole time. 

Going into the live twitter chat, I had a goal to tweet once, but as discussions emerged, I wanted to contribute and respond more. My first tweet was the hardest to post, as I had doubts that my ideas would be worth sharing. 

However, the following replies and tweets came with ease as I made connections to other's experiences, added to their ideas and participated in the debates.  

Other's ideas sparked thinking and reflection for me and in the midst of what I would consider to be a challenging year for teachers, gave me the opportunity to consider what worked well this year and how we can apply what we learned moving forward. 

 

My favourite tweets were the people playing 'devil's advocate.' I enjoyed the honesty of the discussion. It can be dangerous to assume that teachers were prepared for pandemic teaching (I know I wasn't) and I reflect on the ways I failed as a teacher constantly this year. It was a relief to communicate with others who shared my sentiments. Just because teachers worked very hard to adapt and make learning engaging in the reality of teaching during a pandemic, doesn't mean it went well. I enjoyed how others used honesty to discuss and guide potential future directions of learning and education. 

I felt the moderators did a great job initiating discussions and ensuring multiple perspectives were shared. One of the moderators replied to my first tweet and it was nice to be acknowledged. 



The #edchat twitter chat had one topic and people tweeted about it and replied to each other’s comments randomly and sometimes replied to further prompts from the moderators. A few weeks ago, I participated in a different Twitter chat called #lrnchat, where there were about 10 questions that everyone commented on (not as much discussing involved, but more ideas to ponder. I am looking forward to participating in more twitter chats about various topics! 

If you are interested in learning how to find and engage in twitter chats, Nicole shared a great resource that you might find useful! 

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