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What is #Edchat?

July 30th, 2009 · 17 Comments
#Edchat

Daily I engage in thought provoking discussions on Twitter! I have had anywhere from 2 to 6 Twitter participants engaging in these conversations adding observations, advice, debates, anecdotes, and links. However, Tom Whitby brought to my attention that new people to Twitter and others may not be able to follow the discussions. Therefore, we created the hashtag #edchat for all educators to post their thought-provoking conversations throughout the day. Knowing about the great work Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) does online and offline, we had him join the team!

General Information

  • Who can participate? Anyone who has an education related topic they want to explore.
  • When can you participate? Unlike some educational meetings this hashtag does not have a set meeting time. If you find yourself in a Twitter discussion with another person just add the hashtag #edchat to the end of your tweets. This way when others join they know what points have already been made.
  • What should you contribute? You can contribute thoughts, links, questions, ideas, anecdotes, and arguments.
  • What should you avoid? Please do not add a link to your own website if this does not relate to the topic. If your website is related, then feel free to do so. Please, do not leave spam.

How Do I Keep Up with #edchat

You can easily keep updated with #edchat topics by doing any of the following:

  • Setting up a column in your Twitter browser for the search #edchat.
  • Subscribing to the feed through your RSS reader by clicking here.
  • Clicking on this link to view the updates on a website.
  • Clicking on the hashtag of any tweet that has “#edchat.”

You choose which way this works for you!

Ways to Use #edchat

The #edchat hashtag is useful in several ways. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Develop your Personal Learning Network (PLN) by engaging in conversations with other educators.
  • Gather research for an article, blog, or presentation.
  • Collaborate with others in solving an issue at your school.
  • Exchange ideas to improve an upcoming lesson plan.
  • Receive constructive criticism on a lesson plan, presentation, or idea.
  • Share tips and advice for educational endeavors, such as holding a parent education workshop.
  • Show new teachers to Twitter how useful Twitter is for having thought-provoking conversations.
  • Scan the discussion topics to decide which topics educators are interested in for your blog.
  • Poll educators to gather research for your blog post or articles.

Challenge:

Join us in an #edchat discussion today!

What educational topics would you like to explore? Please contact me to share these ideas with us!

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17 responses so far ↓

  • 1    Jason Renshaw // Jul 30, 2009 at 2:40 am

    Great idea, Shelly – shall try to remember the #edchat tag in future Twitter-dealings!

    I would just add one little piece of advice for twitterers… If you are RTing (Re-Tweeting) a post that already has the #edchat tag, you don’t need to include the tag again, as #edchat will have already picked up and added the post previously. This can reduce the risk of you running out of characters in your re-tweet, but also stop the #edchat list from getting overcrowded with RTs of the same post!

    Just my tidbit there, great idea as I said, and one I’ll do my best to support!

    Cheers,

    ~ Jason

    [Reply]

    shellterrell Reply:
    July 30th, 2009 at 2:55 am

    Jason,
    That is a great tip! Thank you and I will try to remember this. We do want clarity versus clutter. Thank you for your support. You will be a great addition to the discussions as you often tweet thought-provoking tweets!

    [Reply]

  • 2    Sue Lyon-Jones // Jul 30, 2009 at 6:05 am

    Think this is excellent idea, Shelly!

    It can be hard sometimes to get a proper overview of discussions taking place on Twitter, as things tend to move so fast. Hopefully this will cut out some of the background noise.

    I’ll certainly be giving it a go!

    Sue

    [Reply]

  • 3    Barbara Sakamoto // Aug 1, 2009 at 12:51 am

    Another amazing idea. And probably another chance for me to totally suck at remembering to use hashtags :-)

    You’ll organize us all!

    Thanks for thinking of this.

    [Reply]

  • 4    What Did They Tweet? 7/27-8/03 | Teacher Reboot Camp // Aug 4, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    [...] Want to explore how to use Twitter for discussions? Join Tom Whitby and I for our weekly #edchat discussions! [...]

  • 5    Gwyneth // Aug 11, 2009 at 11:01 am

    thank goodness! i was confused by this new hashtag! so of course i googled it to discover the origin & meaning…. i like the idea because its shorter than #teachertuesday and not limited to any particular day. i love lively discussions and learning great new resources and you have been one of the best contributors to my knowledge pool!…but i have concerns: but to add two hash tags to tweets cuts down on space to share plus i feel it could splinter our message. Divide & Conquer? or a different perspective?

    [Reply]

    shellterrell Reply:
    August 11th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    Gwyneth,

    I really enjoy your tweets and blog as well! Teachertuesday has usually been used as a hash tag for leaving recommendations. Therefore, this is really difficult to follow a conversation or review the archives. Edchat is the hash tag we use for carrying out the actual discussions. Edchat is not meant for recommendations of who to follow. This is why the hash tag is short as well. We decided to do this on TeacherTuesday so that many of the teachers who may not come on Twitter as often will be able to participate. I read somewhere that on Tuesday most teachers are on Twitter. I hope you enjoy the experience!

    [Reply]

  • 6    Mary Beth Hertz // Aug 17, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    Shelly,

    I hadn’t checked my Google Reader, so I didn’t see this post there! I would have linked right to it in my post–which I probably will now.

    I love the #edchat discussions I have had, but my recommendation would be to keep the hashtag limited to those discussions and use #edtech or #education or #edutips for resources, links, etc….. I found that trying to archive the discussions themselves becomes difficult since the #edchat tag is used so widely.

    What do you think?

    Thanks for stopping by my post and I look forward to tomorrow’s discussion.

    [Reply]

    Shelly Terrell Reply:
    August 17th, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    Mary Beth Hertz,
    You did a very good job in your post. As soon as I do an update on the progress of edchat I am definitely linking to your post. I added the link so people would see the origins as far this being Tom Whitby’s creation.

    I think you make good points about the hashtag being widely used. However, it is difficult to have people follow guidelines but maybe your post will direct people to do this. I think as this grows we will definitely have to find a way to communicate some guidelines.

    [Reply]

  • 7    #Edchat: Join the Conversation | Teacher Reboot Camp // Aug 18, 2009 at 6:16 am

    [...] Comments Shelly Terrell on What is #Edchat?Mary Beth Hertz on What is #Edchat?Making Global Connections | Teacher Reboot Camp on Developing [...]

  • 8    #Edchat - the new Teacher Movement on Twitter | Kirsten Winkler // Aug 22, 2009 at 9:26 am

    [...] want to know more about #Edchat, you should visit Shelly Terrell’s blog and read the posts What is #Edchat and #Edchat: Join the [...]

  • 9    Spreading “uPD” via #edchat… an Idea! // Aug 25, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    [...] that happens every Tuesday on the Twitter platform. Specific information on #edchat can be found here, but I’ll give a quick overview [...]

  • 10    Twitter Trackbacks for What is #Edchat? | Teacher Reboot Camp [edublogs.org] on Topsy.com // Aug 31, 2009 at 3:39 pm

    [...] What is #Edchat? | Teacher Reboot Camp teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2009/07/30/what-is-edchat – view page – cached Daily I engage in thought provoking discussions on Twitter! I have had anywhere from 2 to 6 Twitter participants engaging in these conversations adding — From the page [...]

  • 11    College Students » Blog Archive » Tuesday Tally - Rank Which Days/Times Would Generally Work Best For #sachat For You? // Sep 16, 2009 at 1:33 am

    [...] facilitating a weekly Student Affairs Chat (#sachat) on Twitter based on the models already used by #edchat and #journchat. In my next post I’ll explain more about the #sachat outline and structure. [...]

  • 12    http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2009/07/30/what-is-edchat/ » Social Marketing // Sep 16, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    [...] http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2009/07/30/what-is-edchat/ Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet Box [...]

  • 13    Staying Connected in a Disconnected World | Learning in the Future // Oct 7, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    [...] #edchat / transcript [...]

  • 14    #edchat on Twitter « A Journey in Educational Technology // Oct 20, 2009 at 2:34 am

    [...] out the site http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2009/07/30/what-is-edchat/ to find out more about the #edchat [...]

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