So, as with started to use Twitter again, this whole Twitter just was making me nervous
and I kept putting it off. I logged on and decided to join the 3:00 pm #edumatch chat and see
what it was all about. I have to say it was a very pleasant experience. Very much like a
chatroom discussion or even a discussion board. Fortunately, the Twitter chat was better.
I had read the previous assignments and teacher’s posting about Twitter and decided to
use TweetDeck to make the Twitter chat experience better. I was lead to the chat via the Google
link that was posted in under this week’s Twitter Chats and Hashtags document and joined my
session. It definitely made the process easier to view and participate in. I had one window with
the TweetDeck open and as recommended by Alice Keeler on her article, I opened one column
for the hashtag and another for the moderator. On another browser I had my Twitter window
open. This made the switching back and forth super easy for me. I saw the participants,
moderator and my Twitter account all at once without having to move pages.
Participating really help close the gap I was having in regards to using Twitter. Chapter 3
of What Connected Educators do Differently goes into detail about embracing the Three Cs and
it was very prevalent in this exercise. Having the limited 140 characters makes communicating
with a purpose a must. There wasn’t room for me to add unnecessary information. I quickly
picked up on the acceptable lingo others were using (Ts=teachers, Ss=students, ppl=people).
Small details such as that kept all the answers short and simple.
Reading Alice’s article also helped because I was able to connect the dots to what she
gave as advice and what I was doing/tweeting. She recommended logging in early and being
ready. I jumped right in with my responses and giving feedback to others in the conversation. I
even came across a current classmate joining in on the fun. This could be a fantastic way to have
a “silent conversation” as an activity in class. I felt like the discussion was normal. The
moderator posted the “Qs” and I responded with the “As”. I noticed how it threw off the flow
when some responded without referencing which question they were answering.
To end this, the best takeaway I had from this was what Whitaker writes in chapter 3.
Collaboration with passion is integral to successful teams. While answering the questions, every
bit of feedback was positive. I saw when people liked my tweets and it gave me encouragement
to tweetchat more. And when the moderator retweeted one of mine, it was as if a teacher thanked
me in the classroom. This same activity can be used in the classroom. Looking around at more
hashtags, the connections to other professionals can go on forever.
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