Twitter chats: Deeper than you might think

As mystical as Twitter can sound to those who don’t use it, others, like me, find that it can be a venue for surprisingly deep conversations. 

In particular, Twitter chats can be a great way to explore a topic with a group of like-minded folks. In a typical Twitter chat, an hour-long synchronous discussion is held around a specific set of questions. Tweets that are a part of these chats are marked with a hashtag (such as #clmooc or #edchat) to call them out. Special applications like Tweet Chat or Twubs can make following the chats easier. 

During the Making Connected Learning MOOC (CLMOOC), we had weekly Twitter chats every Thursday evening. Each chat had a series of 5 or 6 questions that were posed. For example, during the week when were were reflecting on Connected Learning and our CLMOOC experiences, these were the questions asked on the Twitter chat:

• Who’s joining us and where are you from?
• Q1 – What have you made this week?
• Q2 – What has been your biggest take away from #clmooc?
• Q3 – How are you thinking about your future of making and connected learning? 
• Q4 – How are you thinking about making and/or connected learning in your own educational context?
• Q5 – Any ideas for remixing #clmooc or the Make Bank?
• Q6 – What is the difference between collaboration and community? What helps foster either or both?

Our CLMOOC Twitter chats tended to be intense. Hundreds of comments would fly by over the hour. I learned new things and met new people. Sometimes these Twitter conversations would spin off into blog posts, Skype calls, and new Make Bank ideas. It was amazing.

For those who couldn’t attend (or those who wanted to revisit these conversations later), we curated them using Storify. Here’s one example.

Perhaps the best testament to the power of Twitter chats was that after CLMOOC had formally concluded, a group of us decided to keep doing #clmooc Twitter chats. They’re the third Thursday of each month at 5pm Pacific. Join us!
[<a href=”//storify.com/kfasimpaur/clmooc-tweet-chat-7-25-13″ target=”_blank”>View the story “#clmooc tweet chat-7/25/13” on Storify</a>]