EDET543 Twitter Chat Experience

I participated in several Twitter chats over the last two weeks.  Prior to EDET 543, I had never explored Twitter yet alone participated in a chat.  I had high anxiety about "tweeting" correctly, but it was quickly put to rest once the chats started.  My fist chat was with Educational Technology Examples #edtechex.  Next, I participated in #mosnowchat with other home-bound Missouri educators on one of our many snow days.  Finally, last Tuesday I tried to participate in Education Chat #edchat while following #METC14 at the hospital.  There was one other chat that didn't work at all.  Early on, I attempted a chat with Web 2.0 Tools in Teaching #web20tools but was unable to find any conversations concurring the day I tried.

My chat experience was different for each one, but each chat was informative and inspiring. My favorite chat was my first with #edtechex due to the size of it.  While there were several of us participating, it wasn't as overwhelming as #edchat.  I quickly felt comfortable asking questions and responding to the moderator's questions. In #edchat, the chat was so fast paced it was very intimdating. I loved recognizing some of the participants in #mosnowchat but encountered terrible spamming that made it frustrating to try to follow the chat.  Again, the moderator's questions were relevant and interesting, but the spam made me stop prior to the full hour.  While I was unable to attend METC due to a family emergency, I enjoyed reading the tweets of those in attendance through #METC14.  It helped make me feel more connected to the conference but increased my desire to attend.  

I went into this Twitter Chat assignment dreading it and left feeling more informed and eager to participate in more chats.  Through the chats, I started following several new people.  With the help of the resources provided by Professor Hartman, I was easily able to find chats that addressed topics that were interesting to me.  I liked the variety of chats available and the flexibility of the assignment.  Not only could we select our chats, but we were given ample time to complete them.  My overall Twitter chat experience was wonderful even with a few glitches. I definitely went from a Twitter skeptic to a believer and will be encouraging my colleagues to give Twitter a try.