I chose #edtechchat as my first live Twitter chat because this week’s content was on Virtual Reality, which is near and dear to my Pro Grow project in EDU807. Unsure what to expect, the moderator initiated and participate.com Tweeted with a link to sign in. I repeatedly tried to sign in and got a 404 error. Thinking I was out of luck, I just observed the hashtag feed until I realized there was nothing special about the participate login which would prevent me from participating. Being a little shy, I awaited the first question from the shadows.

There were maybe 20 of us active in the feed. Two people were in a GIF war which was mostly unrelated but amusing…although it might have been annoying if there were more people in the feed. I was just trying to keep up and give everyone’s Tweets the attention they deserved. The side-bar conversations usually happened when one answer prompted another question, which is exactly the point of collaboration! Several people had little to offer, but again, the point of collaboration was achieved.

All-in-all, a positive experience and one I would engage in again given another relevant topic. I think Twitter serves a great purpose in collaborating and sharing best practices when facilitated well and with an appropriate audience. I could see, however, that a less academic forum could get out of hand quickly.