EdChats being discussed in The Learning Network's Blog
In a recent post on the New York Times’ website, in The Learning Network blog, Katherine Schulten called attention to the way teachers are teaching each other over Twitter in “chats”. Schulten interviewed three educators who have created EdChats about specific educational contexts:
- Thomas D. Whitby and Shelly Sanchez Terrell, the founders of #Edchat;
- Greg Kulowiec, co-founder of #SSchat for social studies teachers; and,
- Meenoo Rami, a teacher with the Philadelphia Writing Project who created #engchat for English teachers.
In this excerpt from the Q & A style blog post, Meenoo articulates what she thinks is so important about these kinds of informal and ongoing opportunities for teachers to connect using the #engchat hashtag:
Q. In general, how do you think new forms of teacher-to-teacher digital communication can impact individual classrooms and schools?
A. [Meenoo Rami:] Teachers have collective wisdom and we can crowdsource some of common issues we all face in the classroom. By participating in these peer-to-peer forums, teachers are really teaching other teachers. They are willing to share their expertise and are also willing to learn from other teachers. There is real power and potential for positive change in education in these niche communities.
Meenoo’s resource about creating #engchat is: #engchat: community, conversation and collaboration for English teachers. Another resource, #engchat at ISTE 2011, describes the in-person experiment Meenoo and Bud Hunt created and reflected on as part of the ISTE Conference in June 2011.
