Twitter is an exciting means of communication but it is an ongoing flow of information through a twitter river. You don't always catch all of the posts because you may not be online when relevant posts flow by. Wouldn't it be exciting if you could get together with a number of like-minded educators to discuss what is on your mind?
ENTER TWITTER CHAT . . .
A Twitter Chat (or Tweet Chat) is actually a Twitter conversation that revolves around one unique hashtag. Like-minded tweeters (professionals, fans, friends) tweet at a predetermined time using a specified hashtag. This can be an overwhelming event with #hashtagged postings hyperspeeding by.
This event can be controlled if you use a Twitter Chat tool like TweetChat. TweetChat is a tool that captures the relevant tweets and places them on the screen for you to read and reply.
NOTE: I am now using tchat.io for engaging in Twitter Chats. I was having some problems with Tweetchat and tchat.io has been problem-free for me so far. (3/1/15)
Even with these wonderful tools, I have lost track of the "Twitter Train of Thought." A friend of mine told me that the strategy for getting the most out of a Twitter Chat:
"To successfully experience a Twitterchat, you should identify a handful of participants that make sense to you and follow them during the session. Find some new people to follow on Twitter for the future. After the session, you can get more information from the event by returning to the transcript and mining more nuggets of information."
I just spent an hour with Iowa Educators at #iaedchat tonight. They had 5 questions that were used to direct the discussion throughout the evening. There were a great number of dedicated educators who were sharing their ideas and opinions on good teaching. GREAT OPPORTUNITY.
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Here are a number of Education Tweetchats listed by day and time (Eastern Standard Time.) There are MANY more Tweetchats available in the resources at the end of this posting:
Sunday
9 pm ET #iaedchat Iowa Education Chat (Bettendorf & Fairfield)
Monday
7 pm ET #engchat English Chat
7 pm ET #sschat Social Studies Chat
8 pm ET #edtechchat Educational Tech Chat
8 pm ET #flipclass Flipped Classroom Chat
9 pm ET #kinderchat Kindergarten Chat
9 pm ET #tlap Teach Like a Pirate Chat
Tuesday
12 pm ET #edchat Education Chat
7 pm ET #edchat Education Chat
9 pm ET #spedchat Special Education Chat
Wednesday
9 pm ET #ECETechchat Early Childhood Ed Chat (added 3/1/15)
2nd & 4th week #digcit Digital Citizenship Chat
@ 7 pm ET
Thursday
Noon ET #edtechex Ed Tech Examples
8 pm ET #tichat Technology Integrators
Friday
7 pm ET #gtchat Gifted and Talented Chat
7 pm ET #satchatOC Saturday Ed Chat in Oceana (Around Australia)
Saturday
7:30 am ET #satchat Education and Leadership
2 pm ET #globalclassroom Global Classroom (2nd Sat of month)
References
Bearden, S. (9/23/13) 13 Great Twitter Chats Every Educator Should Check Out
ChatSalad Realtime Homepage for Twitter Chats
Cybrary Man Education Chats on Twitter
Smarty, A (May 8, 2012) 5 Steps to Hosting Successful Twitter Chats: Your Ultimate Guide.
Weekly Twitter Chats - This is a schedule of chats on a weekly basis. HUGE list of topics.
Which TwitterChats do you like to follow? Share your suggestions in the comments section.
Wow!!! I just found a trilogy of YouTube videos done by the Cult of Pedagogy that do an awesome job of giving educators an introduction to Diigo. This is an endeavor by Jennifer Gonzalez who proclaims "Teacher Nerds, UNITE!!!"
Do you use Diigo? I have for many years for personal use, but I don't think that I ever really appreciated what I could do with my students. Yes, I have taught about various tagging strategies et al, but I didn't really "get it." Having watched Jennifer's videos on Diigo, I am further along the journey now.
I know that Diigo has their own tutorials, but they seem to be more interested in selling the product by overwhelming you with all of the bells and whistles rather than providing us with useable instructions.
Tutorial Trilogy
This 7-minute video provides an introduction to using Diigo to research. She takes you through the sign-on process. She does a good job of showing us how to bookmark a site. It's quick and easy. She even shows how you can include a highlight and sticky note in your newly discovered website. I like that her demonstrations are well planned and not too entailed. I like how she shows you how to add links to a list and how to organize them once they are there. The only piece that could have been improved would have been to spend a little time showing newbees how to add the Diigo apps (Diigolet, etc) to your browser.
Part 2 of this trilogy is an important video. It shows how to use Diigo Groups to engage in online collaboration. This is quite valuable in your classes. She shows how students can join Diigo Groups that are relevant to what they are studying (i.e., Hamlet). As students research, they can Diigo-mark a site and then share it with their group. (i.e, student finds an analysis if Hamlet's "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy, Diigo-marks it and then adds it to the Hamlet group so that the other students have access.) She even explains how this can be the basis of an on-going, online discussion between the students on specific topics concerning Hamlet.
The final episode of this trilogy is unique because it explains how teachers can use the special classroom organization tools that are available through a free Educator Diigo upgrade. She tells you how to upgrade your account to an educator status and then how to use those tools. She demonstrates how educators can use the Teacher Console create student accounts and organize them in groups. This system has a strong privacy system that will protect student's identities. I haven't seen this demonstrated before and found this quite informative.
How are you using Diigo? Are you using it to support your students doing collaborative research? If you don't think that you are doing it "justice", review these videos and forge ahead.
Please share how you use Diigo or how you envision it making a difference in your learning environment.
