Chatting it Up in the Twitter World

I have to admit, I am still hesitant when it comes to Twitter. I’m not a fan of tweeting all of the time and sometimes it feels like yet another way to watch all of the world’s problems scroll by! However, I also see the value in it as a platform to connect with people from all over for various reasons. Last night (Tuesday), I was challenged with engaging in my first-ever official twitter chat. I had heard about these strange things before (thank you ECS 100) but being that I was not on twitter at the time, I just brushed them off.

Fast forward to last week when we began learning about Twitter chats related to education and how to get involved, I was faced with the reality that I was going to have to dive right into one, head first with no flotation device! It was going to be sink or swim. Armed with all of the knowledge needed to begin, I eagerly awaited to “face my dragon.”

And I waited…and waited. There were so many different options! I didn’t really want to start with anything big but the most suggested chat was the #saskedchat, which is well-known at the U of R and I’m sure many other places. But that to me was far too intimidating. I skimmed through several options before I finally landed on the #2ndaryELA chat! And boy was I in for a treat!

Leading up to the chat last night I was strangely nervous. I had no idea how I was going to keep up or how I was going to contribute any meaningful ideas! I didn’t want to be useless or just be a mooch on all of the resources and ideas. At 7:00 pm, I set my nerves aside and got down to it!

I have to note that I would not have been able to do this chat without the use of TweetDeck, so thank you to Katia Hildebrandt for showing us that extremely useful tool in class. I was able to monitor the questions and other peoples responses while providing my own input and responding to other peoples posts all at the same time! The people in the chat were so welcoming to me and there were even a few other rookies, which made it very comforting. Overall, the whole thing was a really great experience! It was amazing to see a small group of people, from Canada and the US, come together for half an hour and share resources and tips. The questions made me think about the teaching I do in my classes and made me see that there is much more to learn! Had I not joined Twitter and participated in this chat, I would have missed out on making some new connections and growing my network just a little bit more.