Okay, so I just participated (or tried to) in my first twitter session with #edchat. The topic was "Is a blend of E-learning and face to face learning a viable option for reform?". For the whole transcript, look here.
To be totally honest, as a person that is looking in from the outside (or new), I would rate this experience as negative. As an analogy to this, I would liken myself to a confused student that has no sense of direction (self-directed learning anyone?).
Here's a list why:
- Very difficult to keep up with all of the tweets
- No consistency on topics talked about. It was just a smorgasbord of similar thoughts put into one place
- No focus. It was just multiple conversations between different people
- None of my tweets were responded too (probably got lost from all of the other tweets)
- Twitter is not a good platform to have conversations with multiple people
- Too many people
If your only reasons for following #edchat are to see what people are saying/reading/watching/doing, then it is an excellent source for information.With your hand up, how many people actually get a response with the #edchat hashtag?
But I did end up following @ShellTerrell @web20classroom
Here are some links (I couldn't catch them all since it was way too fast and I'm not going to go through the archive to find them all):
Schools Blend Virtual and Face-to-Face Teaching - http://bit.ly/aFG1KY
15 Back to School Apps for Teachers - http://bit.ly/cGL7v0
Funny Comic about eLearning - http://yfrog.com/mzu7xkj
School in a Pocket? - http://www.drdouggreen.com/2010/04/a-school-in-your-pocket-handhelds-go-to-school/
If my expectations are incorrect and there are certain ones I should be aware of, please let me know. I don't want to be misinterpreting what #edchat does.
Your complaint about edchat is similar to general complaints about Twitter. Too much, too fast, etc. I quit trying to worry about what I miss, and focus on what I AM able to absorb. I think you'll find if you target one or two people who say things that intrigue you and @ them directly, including the #edchat tag, you'll have better luck getting a dialog going.
ReplyDeleteYes, Twitter is not the best forum for a multi-person conversation. But it's a great place for meeting new people and initiating conversations that extend beyond Twitter. Such as on your blog. ;-)
Wow, my first comment! Now I know what Zoe was talking about when someone says something on your blog :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, now I understand that you can't keep up with these kinds of chats, especially on #edchat. But, what if you had something to say that you know no one brought up, then how would you get heard?
I agree that it can be really hard to keep up with something like that, especially if you're not either super tech savvy or doing it all the time. On the bright side you came out with a couple of resources that you wouldn't have had before.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree Chanthorn, I find this type of PD very difficult to follow and the ideas and conversations do not flow. I have tried it as well. Your reflection explains it well.
ReplyDeleteZoe