Over the past few weeks, I have done 2 Twitter chats. They were both very absorbing activities. It requires absolute concentration and there can't be any distractions around or you will miss parts of the conversation.
The first one I chose was #1to1techat. The organizer asked questions about our school's mission and vision statement and had us discuss how they should relate to technology. Some questions asked who should be involved with writing these statements as well. I started following Shawn McCusker (@ShawnMcCusker) through this chat. He is an Ed Tech Teacher Leader. Here is his blog http://gowhereyougrow.wordpress.com/ I liked this chat as my first ever, because it was not a hugely popular one and seemed to go slow enough that I still enjoyed it. It was fast paced, but not confusingly so.
My second chat was #edtechchat. I was more nervous about his chat because of it's popularity. I was afraid of how fast the posts would go by on the screen. Well, I was right to be nervous, but got into the swing of it. The organizer had a guest, Nathan Stevens(@nathan_stevens), whom I follow now, asking the questions. (Nathan's wiki http://teachwithyouripad.wikispaces.com/) It was totally geared toward how LEGO's can be used in the classroom. This was so informational. I was surprised at how many digital resources there are for LEGO and how many educational packages LEGO sells. www.buildwithchrome.com was my favorite. Google Sketch Up was mentioned as a great 3D tool as well. LEGO also has a movie maker app that looks so fun! It was an eye opener, because it reminded me that even blocks are OK to use as technology in the classroom.
Both chats were informative. I enjoyed the LEGO discussion better, because it gave me ideas to use in my classroom right away. I would have to practice this chatting more often to really feel comfortable with it. The topics are always different and you never know what your going to get, so I guess I would say I would like to know the topics ahead of time...that would be my job to go and seek that information before it starts though, wouldn't it?
Great reflection! I always like to know the chat topic ahead of time. I typically decide if I want to participate in a chat by the topic. Just follow the hashtags before the chat and somebody should tweet the topic.
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