My reflections having co-hosting a Tweet meet
Last Tuesday I along with 21 other educators hosted a Microsoft education Tweet meet, on the subject of 'student centred learning'. It such an amazing experience I thought it worthy of a separate blog post.
I was introduced to the Tweet meet team by an acquaintance from my personal learning network, he had been a host on previous tweet meet and found the whole process really interesting and worthwhile.
Following the formal invitation to take part, a Skype call was arranged between myself and one of the organisers who stressed that would be a fair bit of work ahead of the event and require a reasonable time commitment. As with most of these things it is very much a case more you put in the more you get out and that was certainly the case with this.
The first task was to come up with the five questions that we would ask during the Tweet meet this was done via group video call in Microsoft teams, this was the first time I had seen some many collaborators participate in a Teams call supported by a text chat and it was impressive to see. Despite it being a hot sunny Saturday and the cohosts scattered across the globe with a variety of time zones, an impressive 18 of the 21 hosts were present and their enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate was infectious. We were aided by the three facilitators who had a very gentle guiding hand on the rudder making sure progress was made without ever making the whole task seem too onerous.
That tone of collaboration continued throughout the whole lead up, with all participants willing to share and support each other despite the various time zones involved. Conversations would happen with peers rallying to support each other as and when required, it was really great to be involved with such a super team. And it reinforced my belief that as educators we can learn so much from each other regardless of which county we teach in.
Alongside the use of Microsoft teams, we also were provide with access to Microsoft OneNote it detailed all of the preparation tasks that us as facilitators would need to work through and provided a wealth of resources on the various tools in addition to the Microsoft applications that we would need to use. For someone who had only previously dabbled in the use of Microsoft OneNote it was impressive to see it being used in such a comprehensive way. It really highlighted the wider functionality of this tool and how it can be used to share information, collaborate and structure resources in a logical and easy to follow manner.
To aid in the promotion of the tweet meet hosts were encouraged to record a Flipgrid video explaining why others should join us for this Tweet meet, it reminded my what a great tool this is providing participants with a voice.
A couple of other tools that they showcased were specifically aimed at how to get the most out of a Twitter chat these included use the use of TweetDeck to monitor your notifications, and particular # at the same time. The other tool was Buffer it enables you to schedule multiple tweets on specific days and times. I was not familiar with either of the tools however with the information provided by the Tweet meet team it enabled me to pick up the new tools with relative ease. And without those tools being used I think I would’ve struggled to get all the tweets out at the set times.
I’ve already blogged about the benefits of Twitter chats and how these can be a great way help to grow your personal learning network, they also it to enable you to connect with peers from a wider geographic area all of which benefit your own development. My participation as a host in this Tweet Meet just reinforced those benefits.
As with most Twitter chats it was pretty frenetic,It was great that there was lots of involvement from educators from all over the globe. At the end of the Tweet meet sense of achievement was amazing, when the all tweets were totalled up, along with the number of participants it was one of the busiest Tweet meets that they had so far and it was a pleasure to be involved with.
If you’re fortunate enough to be asked to participate as a cohost of a future Tweet meet, based on my experience, I can heartily recommend that you agree, and provide the time and effort required because I certainly found it hugely worthwhile. Not only for the additional connections it enabled me to make, thus further growing my personal learning network but also for the way it helped me to develop the way I make use of social media to support my own learning.
Catch up with what was said during the chat by checking out this Wakelet!