chat

I'm going to get on my soap box.

Normally, I wouldn't begin a blog entry that way, because that just sets you up for nasty comments and people posting their life story on your page...that's why I deleted Facebook.

BUT hopefully this topic isn't quite so controversial: teachers and technology.

There are endless amounts of resources to use out there and pretending technology doesn't exist hurts our students and hurts us. 

Technology is not going away, Facebook is not going away, Snapchat is not going away.  Ignoring them and pretending like they don't exist is not going to make them go away. 

The reason I teach is to prepare students to function actively in a democratic society.  That means being able to form their own opinions based on research, knowing how and when to vote, financial literacy, and scores of other real-life situations.

The point is, technology IS an active member of society and it is NOT going away.

You can vote online, you can buy cars online (I wouldn't recommend it), and you can take classes online.  We all know you can chat online (myspace, Facebook, and the good old AIM) but I just witnessed another great resource that is not quite so mainstream:

Twitter Chat

What is it? Basically you tweet to a hashtag and converse with infinite numbers of people over Twitter and anyone can participate.

What do I like about it?  I love that you are getting a wide range of opinions and I love that participants are required to summarize their feelings/views in 140 characters or less.  I also love that it isn't a private chat.  Each tweet you send is also going to all of your other followers so you have to be careful about what you say and how you say it and make sure that your tweets make sense to those who are not participating in the chat.

In a nutshell: you have to THINK and that's kind of cool.

I observed a couple educational Twitter chats including #whatisschool and #ntchat to see how they work.  One person (the facilitator) asks questions or brings up topics every few minutes and allows other to respond.  Participants can upload links, pictures, etc. and share resources relating to the topic as well as their opinions.  

The only downside to this type of communication is that you can't reload the page fast enough and read everyone's responses.  There are a TON of tweets every thirty seconds so you can only read bits and pieces of the conversation.

I would totally recommend observing and/or participating in one of these if you get a chance!  It's an awesome way to use technology, accumulate resources and continue to build a network of educators!