Anna K's #edchat Reflection

To begin my journey of participating in an #edchat, I went to the calendar for edchats and found several I'd like to participate in. I began by adding them to my Tweetdeck, since they are going to happen all at the same time. I added #edchat, #luthed (a Lutheran ed. chat), #colchat (a culture of the classroom chat), and #tlap (a teach like a pirate chat). I only participated in one chat, but having the options helped when it came time to participate. I participated in the one that was the most interesting to me.

I chose #colchat right off the bat because of their topic.

And the rest is history... which I'll of course explain.





















___ The beginning of the chat can be explained by "mass confusion." Everything was happening so fast. It was almost insane to be able to keep up with it all. Luckily, I found out that Sarah Moser from our Tech Lab was in the chat as well! We both side-tweeted about how crazy we thought it was. Those who were the skilled "edchatters," were very encouraging when they saw our concerned tweets. They gave us tips like, "don't try to read them all, just pick and choose," "make sure you add your opinion in!" "you'll get the hang of it," and "don't forget it will get archived and you can always read everything later!" They were some of the nicest people I've ever "met" via Twitter. After the meet and great, they began asking questions and then we all answered it. I've posted the questions with my responses.

__


__

 

___

 

___

___

 ___



___

 








___ As it came to a close, Sarah agreed to be my accountability partner, which was fun! Overall, it was a neat experience. I can see its potential usefulness. It is also a great way to get teachers to be motivated about different topics.

As I was participating in the chat, I had commented to my husband how crazy it was to tweet your comment and then have to shorten it like crazy. He made a joking/sarcastic comment about "Yeah, Twitter seems like a great place for a discussion..." I can certainly see how hard it might be to discuss super in-depth topics. However, I feel that these edchats are great for bouncing off ideas, motivating others, and creating a sense of focus. After all, you have to know what you want to say quickly and only in 140 characters.

The chat was useful. It was great to grow my Twitter follows and followers. I added people I may not have known existed on Twitter, and I was able to collect my thoughts on their topic. I'm sure I will explore it again.