Teachers Teaching Teachers, on Twitter: Q. and A. on ‘Edchats’

A screenshot from TweetDeck showing, left, a recent #Edchat stream and, right, the #Engchat stream at the same time.

Like other groups with shared interests, from epidemiologists to James Joyce fans to locked-out N.F.L. players, teachers are turning to Twitter to collaborate, share resources and offer each other support.

Many, in fact, are using it to take professional development into their own hands, 140 characters at a time.

Each week, thousands of teachers participate in scheduled Twitter “chats” around a particular subject area or type of student. Math teachers meet on Mondays, for instance, while science discussions happen on Tuesdays, new teachers gather on Wednesdays and teachers working with sixth graders meet Thursdays. (Jerry Blumengarten, Twitter’s @cybraryman1, posts this helpful list of educational chats.)

By using hashtags — that is, words or phrases preceded by the # symbol, like “#Scichat” for science educators — users can organize, search and find messages on a particular topic all in one place.

Anyone can participate, and joining is easy: just go to Twitter, search for the hashtag of the chat that appeals to you, and start to read the stream of messages. When you’re ready to add your own thoughts or share resources, just append that same hashtag to your Twitter message. (For more tips, visit our “Nuts and Bolts” and “Resources” lists.)

For instance, as I write this, an English teacher could dip into the #Engchat stream and find a link to a list of five-minute grammar lessons, a query about how to use stations in literature classes, and a note from a high school teacher about how she did a rap for her sophomores on reading strategies to the tune of “Ice, Ice Baby.”

If you wanted to write your own Twitter message and add it to this stream, you’d just say something brief, and put #Engchat at the end of it. For instance, you might write: “Some great resources for Banned Books Week here: //nyti.ms/9qPVku #Engchat.”

We chose three of the chats where New York Times and Learning Network resources are most often shared, and interviewed the founders about what they do, why and how.

Below, you’ll find a question-and-answer session with Thomas D. Whitby and Shelly Sanchez Terrell, the founders of #Edchat, a place for educators of all kinds to gather, and the grandfather of the education Twitter chats; Greg Kulowiec, co-founder of #SSchat for social studies teachers; and Meenoo Rami who created #Engchat for English teachers.

Please note: For simplicity’s sake, from here on we’ll refer to each chat without the hashtag symbol. In the Q. and A. below, we’ll also refer to each participant by his or her initials.


Q.

What are Edchat, SSchat and Engchat and how did they come about?

A.


S.T.: The conversation began two years ago between three educators, Tom Whitby, Steven Anderson and me. We all desired education transformation and we all saw the need for educational stakeholders to discuss, debate, explore, reflect and act on various issues which impact education. We also included guest experts early on for Edchat.

T.W.:We realized that many valuable mini-discussions were taking place on Twitter with limited exposure, so we started Edchat to gather as many tweeters as we could, at the same place and at the same time, to discuss topics important to educators in general.

Eventually, faced with global participation, we had to add a noon Edchat to accommodate the time zones in Europe. The Edchat Poll was then developed to give participants more of a say in topic choice. (Some of the broad topics of our chats have been pedagogy, methods, curriculum, skills, technology, leadership, testing, and reform.)

We later branched out to do live sessions with education leaders like Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravitch, Howard Rheingold, Gary Stager, Jim Burke and Steve Hargadon.

S.T.: Alfie Kohn was our first guest, and he spoke about the homework myth. During his dynamic conversation with teachers, Edchat became the number five trending topic on Twitter. We believe this is one of the few educational hashtags that has become a trending topic.

M.R.: I modeled Engchat after Edchat. Last year, a lot of education Twitter chats were emerging but there were none dedicated to English teachers. I was nervous about taking on the task, wondering whether it would actually work or not. But I took the plunge and started Engchat in August 2010.

G.K.: The social studies chat came about in July 2010. I started to participate in various chats, but, as Meenoo did with English teachers, noticed that there wasn’t one that was dedicated to history or social studies teachers. Our first chat took place in July 2010 with about 10 participants. Ron Peck joined in from the very beginning to help us build the chat. The number of participants has grown tremendously in the first year, with the weekly discussion poll getting an average of 70+ votes.

Q.

What have been some of the most popular topics?

A.

M.R.: Our biggest turnout for Engchat was when Diane Ravitch hosted; she discussed her book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” She was frank, honest and really made the teachers feel like she understood how they were feeling in our current political climate. Other popular topics have included using technology in literacy; teaching Shakespeare; building a learning community in your classroom; and setting up your classroom library.

G.K.: The topics for SSchat vary, from pedagogy to crowdsourcing for resources.

T.W.: It’s difficult to determine how many people are lurking (that is, just observing) at chats. We have had over 500 individual tweeters in a single chat with over 3,000 tweets in an hour.

S.T.: What the hashtag statistics for Edchat indicated was that about 2,000 to 3,000 or more lurk and visit every Tuesday.

“The most memorable night for us was when the news of the death of Osama bin Laden broke. People were immediately on SSchat and we were sharing resources and ideas on how to bring this into our classrooms the next day.”

— Greg Kulowiec

Q.

What kinds of contributions are most useful?

A.

G.K.: Participants in SSchat tend to share links, resources, lesson plans, examples of projects and student work. Blog posts written by teachers that relate to the discussion topic are also extremely helpful. Although SSchat takes place on Monday nights as a synchronous discussion, people post to Twitter all week and tag their tweets with #sschat as a method to share resources asynchronously. Participants tend to use the chat hashtag all week to ask questions, share resources and prepare for the upcoming chat. We welcome all, and especially encourage new social studies teachers to join in.

M.R.: Teachers who are willing to share great links and resources with the Engchat community are greatly appreciated, as are teachers who model lifelong learning.The hashtag is active all week long and it’s the place on Twitter for English teachers to share links, resources, ideas and queries. Our community is very welcoming, and loves to connect with new followers.

S.T.: We’re looking for the same links and resources as the other chats. We also welcome participants to disagree or point out how some ideas may not work in their various contexts globally. And we welcome questions! We discourage spamming and bullying, of course.

Q.

What are some experiences that stand out for you in showing the power of the chats?

A.

M.R.: A memorable moment for Engchat happened at I.S.T.E. in Philly this June where we actually did our usual Monday night chat, but this time in real life at a bar. It was great to bring the usual participants together and connect in person.

G.K.: The most memorable night for us was when the news of the death of Osama bin Laden broke. People were immediately on SSchat and we were sharing resources and ideas on how to bring this into our classrooms the next day. We then modified the Monday night chat after the announcement to address the news and discuss how to teach this topic in our classrooms.

The second most memorable moment was when a group of SSchat participants submitted a proposal to present at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference. The proposal was written online using a Google document, and none of the participants in the submission had ever met face to face at that point. The proposal was accepted and we will be able to share this fantastic experience with more history teachers from all over the country.

We are also currently in the planning process for EdcampSS in March 2012. The chats are an outstanding way to collaborate. We hope to create an experience where anyone who participates in SSchat will be able to meet their fellow contributors face to face.

T.W.: I am always blown away by the number of references that edubloggers make to Edchat experiences. Stories about Edchat have also appeared in every major educational journal.

S.T.: Our Edchat has created real change by igniting new projects, adding more educators to the conversation, inspiring over 400 additional educational chats, a new school, a free online conference with over 4,000 attendees, an international blogging day of education reform and so much more. Visit this Wallwisher to read about specific stories.

We have also had various educational leaders participate in Edchat and discuss education transformation with teachers. Students, teachers, parents, administrators, education policymakers, and community leaders participate in the conversation each week and collaborate on education reform.

The hashtag can be used by anyone interested in improving education. It was the first educational panel for the 140 Conferences and inspired even more education panels. I would argue that Edchat is one of the most powerful hashtags creating real change in schools.

Q.

In general, how do you think new forms of teacher-to-teacher digital communication can impact individual classrooms and schools?

A.

M.R.: Teachers have collective wisdom and we can crowdsource some of common issues we all face in the classroom. By participating in these peer-to-peer forums, teachers are really teaching other teachers. They are willing to share their expertise and are also willing to learn from other teachers. There is real power and potential for positive change in education in these niche communities.

“I would argue that edchat is one of the most powerful hashtags creating real change in schools.”

— Shelly Terrell

G.K.: Teacher collaboration through social media tools is transforming the way teachers find, develop and use content in their classes. Twitter and our chats allow educators to crowdsource for content, ideas, pedagogy and research.

Social media also allows teachers to connect their classrooms to create collaborative projects that would have otherwise been impossible. Participating in a Twitter chat is an energizing and motivating experience, one that will force you to reconsider your perspective and grow as an educator.

T.W.: It enables educators to know what it is that they don’t know. It exposes educators to a larger frame of reference in the world of education. It offers a connection with people and sources that will help them understand and explore issues about which they were previously unaware. They are no longer isolated educators limited to the experiences and sources of their small schoolhouses.

S.T.: These weekly discussions offer a source of inspiration and motivation for teachers who feel burnt out and unsupported. The conversations lead to real action, and the resources help educators in every field with any problem. Educators who are on Edchat will often ask questions and spark conversations throughout the week. Our chat is used by teachers daily to inspire, motivate and connect. Moreover, these chats inspire educators, parents, students and administrators to collaborate on education transformation worldwide as well as practice continuous reflection and learning.

Q.

What do you have planned for this school year?

A.

M.R.: At Engchat, we’re in our second year, with excitement and enthusiasm. We have some great guest moderators lined up, such as Kelly Gallagher, Sam Chaltain, Kirsten Olson, Kevin Honeycutt, Jo Knowles and many more.

G.K.: The biggest move is to plan and organize EdcampSS for March 24, 2011. There is also an SSchat group on Edutopia’s Web site and we will continue to grow and improve the SSchat Ning. We also welcome new participants and welcome anyone who is interested in guest moderating.

S.T.: We’ll continue to provide free Webinars with educational leaders and support other educational hashtags through Edchat. We have been working with various researchers throughout the year who are now publishing their findings about the impact of Edchat.

We will continue to take Edchat to audiences worldwide in face-to-face conferences. We’re hosting a 24 hour Edchat marathon and a Call for Action day where educators worldwide will present their specific plans for education reform.


The Nuts and Bolts:

#Edchat:

To observe: Visit the Edchat wiki to learn more, or just take a look at the #Edchat page on Twitter.

To participate: After you join Twitter you can join one of the live discussions every Tuesday at noon and 7 p.m. Eastern time by adding #edchat to the end of your messages. For more, visit the Edchat tips page.

#Engchat:

To observe: Visit the engchat site, where you can find archived chats as well as watch the Twitter stream live — or go to the #Engchat page on Twitter to read the messages.

To participate: After you join Twitter you can participate every Monday from 7-8 p.m. Eastern time.

#SSchat:

To observe: Visit the sschat ning, where you can find archived chats, or just take a look at the #SSchat page on Twitter.

To participate: After you join Twitter you can participate every Monday from 7-8 p.m. Eastern time by searching for #sschat on Twitter and adding #sschat to your messages so others following the discussion can see yours.


More About Twitter:

A list of Twitter chats for educators and their hashtags can be found at Cybrayman’s collection of Educational Chats on Twitter page

In Twittering, Not Frittering: Professional Development in 140 Characters, Suzie Boss explains the basics of how teachers can get started on Twitter, and why they should.

In How to Use Twitter to Grow Your PLN, Betty Ray lays out more simple ways to getting the most from other educators on Twitter.

If you’d like to read more about the “cultural shorthand” of hashtags, check out the Times article, Twitter’s Secret Handshake.

In our own post, Three Teachers’ Answers to Questions on Classroom Microblogging, we interview teachers who use Twitter and other microblogging tools with the students in their classrooms.

Finally, follow the Learning Network and its staff on Twitter:

@NYTimesLearning — Our main account, from which we send news daily about what’s on our blog as well as what else is in The New York Times and around the Web that might interest teachers.

@KSchultenKatherine Schulten‘s personal account

@heojHolly Epstein Ojalvo‘s personal account


More About the Interviewees:

Greg Kulowiec, co-creator of SSchat, is a history teacher and technology integration specialist at Plymouth South High School, in Plymouth, MA. He blogs at The History 2.0 Classroom.

Meenoo Rami, creator of Engchat, teaches her students English at Science Leadership Academy, a partnership high school between the School District of Philadelphia and The Franklin Institute.

Shelly Sanchez Terrell, co-creator of Edchat and Eltchat, is the Vice President of Educator Outreach for Parentella, and the Social Media Community Manager for The Consultants-E. She blogs at Teacher Reboot Camp.

Thomas D. Whitby, co-creator of Edchat, taught secondary English for 34 years and is now an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s College in New York. He created The Educator’s PLN, a global Ning site, where approximately 10,000 educators worldwide share and collaborate daily, and blogs at My Island View: Educational, Disconnected Utterances.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Great article! Thanks for the brief mention, but really disappointing not to be asked to participate in this conversation.
As the only chat, on Twitter that supports new teachers, my passion for this work is huge!
Shelly Terrell is a good friend who worked with me, by giving insights to #edchat that helped me to launch the chat.
New Teacher Chat #ntchat was founded by me Lisa Dabbs,as a single passionate educator, and launched on May 5, 2010. This is long before #SSchat and #Engchat. I actually have inspired others to take off with their chats, as a result of my work. The interesting piece is that all those chats have teams that work together. Where as I have been supporting new teachers on my chat, as a one woman moderating, show for over a year. (Recently 2 colleagues have agreed to join me when they can, and I’m grateful.)
The participation in this chat, is much more intimate than those above named, larger chats, and the emails and tweets, I receive from new teachers, who feel supported by this chat, are SO rewarding. This chat is a work of the heart for me. :)
All the information for New Teacher Chat is housed on the wiki //newteacherchat.wikispaces.com/
Would love the opportunity to have new teacher chat featured in an upcoming article. Thanks for the opportunity to share!

My daughter is a school speech therapist. Are there any others speech therapists she can connect with on your site?

As a math teacher, I have found the #mathchat hosted by @ColinTGraham to be a consistent source of real professional development.

Twice a week, on Monday afternoons and Thursday evenings, educators from all around the world engage in productive conversations about mathematics, teaching, and learning.

With so many experienced teachers chiming in on topics like mathematical misconceptions, teaching around the curriculum, and the appropriate use of technology, it’s impossible not to leave with something useful to think about.

Marisa Constantinides September 30, 2011 · 6:15 pm

#edchat has been a great inspiration for many Twitter chats amongst educators, certainly for #ELTchat which I moderate with Shelly Terrell.

If any readers are ESL or EFL teachers, I invite them to join our #ELTchat every Wednesday at 12 .00 p.m. & 21.00 p.m. BST

More information on the #ELTchat blog //www.eltchat.com/ which has turned into a great resource for ESL/EFL teachers worldwide with summaries of great practical value to practising teachers.

@Marisa_C

Good article! Edchatters are a terrific group of people. Edchats have also been driving the growth of Edcamps, which are “unconferences” that are a great way for educators to grow professionally and meet face to face with fellow chatters.

Check out #EdCampNYC tomorrow (Oct. 1, 2011).

Great article featuring popular Twitter chats. The three chats featured are a true inspiration to creating a smaller-scale Twitter chat, for my school and school district. If it grows in popularity, even better yet. In the meantime, I only blog about various education and education administration topics: //jamesbrauer.com

Thank you again for featuring these educational social media tools!

The first live/synchronous chats on Twitter were actually called Educhat. //thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2009/03/launch-of-educhat.html

The popularity of Educhats (one of only two synchronous chats on Twitter at the time… the first being #journchat) led to an onslaught of spammers using the hashtag. The early conversations were supported by rich conversation plans that are still available at //twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/page/Educhat

Teresa Rolfe Kravtin October 1, 2011 · 10:45 am

There is also #titletalk the last Sunday of the month at 8pm EDT. @Donalynbooks and @PaulWHankins lead a lively discussion about reading in the classroom for all grade levels.

Let’s get more teachers on twitter! Fantastic way to learn from peers. Great way to spread the word with your post! Some of my favorites:
@ciasiello, @budtheteacher @willrich45 @poh
Learning is happening all the time.

I have been an avid participant of #edchat and can assure you that it has been a wild deluge of wisdom into my teaching practices. As the #edchat is a global movement but unfortunately mostly reflects the reality of Europe and America Educational System, I thought, as an English Teacher as a Second Language, I needed something that would have more impact into my development as a teacher. Then on last September #Eltchat was created.
It’s wonderful to see so many EFL teachers gathering and sharing knowledge, ideas and questions. Nevertheless, as the Brazilian ELT community is huge and has been growing exponentially, a group of fellow teachers and I (@brunoELT, @ceciELT, @hoprea, @raquel_EFL and @vbenevolofranca) have created the English Teaching Language Chat for the Brazilian Community. Our hashtag is #breltchat – our chat happens fortnightly on Thursdays at 10pm (Brasilia Time).
More info can be found at: //www.breltchat.wordpress.com

It’s great to see that all the effort that we, twitter chats moderators, have been making is finally paying off.
Thanks all.

WHEN THE ECONOMY IS DOWN AND CLOSURES OF COMPANIES ARE HAPPENING , AND TEACHER BURNOUT AT AN ALLTIME HIGH: HOW REFRESHING IT IS TO HAVE SUPER CREATIVE BLOGS ON TEACHERS HELPING TEACHERS. IN TEXAS MOST TEACHERS PAY ARE AT AN ALLTIME HIGH BUT STILL THEY ARE NOT AS RECOGNIZE AS OUR MOST VALUEABLE RESOURCE IN THE WORLD: THANKS SHELLY AND YOUR CO PARTNERS IN WHAT THE SOURCES ONLINE YOU HAVE MADE AVAILABLE THRU EDUCHAT AND OTHER BLOGS AND WEBINARS:

We’ve been curating tweetchat lists for quite some time. We would like to invite moderators to add any of these educational chats to our wiki, if they are not already included. Use the link below. You can create an account and edit the page as you like.

Eric Bryant
Gnosis Arts Media Group
//s.gnoss.us/twchat

i think its good that teachers are teaching teachers.cause teachers could learn new things.they also get new experience.

I can’t wait to join in edchat next Tuesday. I wonder how many other topics besides Social Studies and English there are.

I think that joining the edchat on Tuesday will be really interesting and insightful. I can’t wait to see what topics are discussed, especially since it is election day, I’m sure there could be some hot topics because of this!

Hope it’s not too late to mention this helpful article on using hashtags to create professional development networks — it’s by elementary teacher Patti Grayson, who traces her own discoveries in this regard in a practical, friendly style.

//plpnetwork.com/2011/07/29/twitter-for-teachers-discover-hashtag-pd/

Good ideas presented, teachers today need to support each other outside of district. Will try and get on a chat as ELL teacher soon

Just starting with Twitter, the blog mentioned in the article sounds great. Looking forward to picking the brains of all the teachers out there.

The best way for teachers to gain knowledge and experience is to learn from other teachers! Twitter allows teachers to learn from other educators from all over the globe.

I thought the article was interesting and I am looking forward to collaborating with other professionals in the Guidance and Counseling field.

Does anyone know if/when there is a foreign language chat?

I am just beginning to use twitter to connect. There are so many helpful places to go for collaboration. It is a challenge to discover which will be the most helpful as a high school social studies teacher.