Wednesday, October 2, 2013

TwitterChat -- A Must-have Teaching Tools!

Although I used Twitter before, I did not know TwitterChat and its powerfulness. It is a perfect revelation of connectivism. By following and participating a chat, one would be able to communicate directly with some professionals and even pundits, and get novel advices immediately. Like what Mark Barnes said in his Blog What is a Twitter Chat andHow Can It Help YOU in 15 Minutes or Less that “you can get a wide variety of resources […] all tailored to your interests and questions” and that “you can get all these goodies in just 10-15 minutes!”


After I participated a chat #hcspdl, which I found unexpectedly, I realized there were a lot people who recommended articles, projects and social networking sites. They were all fans of Connectivisim! At first, Sean Junkins, who is a Digital Integration Specialist, an Apple Distinguished Educator, a Google Certified Teacher and a STAR Discovery Educator, introduced a warm-up activity. He had us to complete a sentence that “a connected educator is __________.” Later, one of Sean’s colleagues named Stephanie Yancey, the host of #hcspdl chat tonight, started with a question: “How has becoming connected changed the way you teach?” All participants engaged in discussing how Twitter makes us connected and how connectivity helps teachers to stay a step ahead of their students.


As for a teacher, TwitterChat is absolutely a good form to build up resources for further needs. Besides, it is an excellent collector of suggestions and ideas. Most teachers are busy and they do not have right tools and time to get those things done, but TwitterChat provides a platform for them to save time! Suppose a question is posted, you do not have to stay for answers but leaves for other work out there. After a while, voila – answers from a sea of experts are available for you! It is not that you do not have time to use Twitter, but you use Twitter because you do not have time. 

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