Twitter Chat

Just finished up my second Twitter Chat this morning. What a difference the second one was compared to the first, both were fantastic ! The two I participated in were : #web20tools and #nt2t . #web20tools was a great starter for chatting. It was slower paced and had a couple of classmates in the chat. I was able to really be an active participant and directly connect with some of the participants. The main focus of this chat was to share ideas on what web2.0 tools are being utilized int the classroom. We all shared several that we use ourselves and got some great article links. I really felt great about chatting after this and looked forward to the next. I got a tip to participate in #nt2t in this chat, which is where I ended up for the second chat. This was a chat room for teachers new to Twitter, however it seemed most were veterans and wow, was it different than the first! As soon as I entered the room and stated I was new and a student, my feed blew up!!! I was hardly able to keep up with the responses to my questions or the questions being asked to me. Within just a few minutes I had 20 messages! Of course I had my phone and ipad next to me and they were constantly dinging with messages from someone! I never thought I would get the responses I got! I think this was the most challenging part. My TweetChat was not working correctly so I had to change over to Hootsuite in the middle of the chat and try to catch up, not good!! The great thing about it though was I was able to go back and re-read all the comments and really absorb the material after the chat was over. I also was able to keep chatting with those I connected with during the chat, which is awesome! After both chat sessions I was able to make several new connections. I got several new followers as well as started following some great educators from across the country. I feel so much better about Twitter than I used to . I actually see the value in it now, where as before THIS class I really didn't get the whole concept about being on Twitter. Before when I was given the assignment of starting a Twitter account, I wasn't given direction or advice on WHAT to do or HOW to do it. This class has really made a difference in my PLN and has opened my eyes as to what is available to us, not just as a student, but as an educator. There is so much more out there than what I could ever find without it. The only thing I would do to improve upon my experience is to participate more so I get more used to the flow. I think with time, chats will become less overwhelming, especially when there are so many people on the room! Overall, this has been a great experience and I will continue to participate in chats!