Edchats- Should we use them in school?

I am getting my masters in Instructional Design from the University of North Dakota. Since starting the program, I have been exposed to many different instructional tools that I can use in my classroom. Today I was able to participate in my first Edchat. This was a new experience for me that I surprisingly enjoyed.

Edchats is a professional development tool. Individuals can log into twitter and collaborate with others with similar interests. The conversation is carried on because members of the chat link their tweet with a similar #hashtag. A moderator poses a question and participants have 140 characters or less to answer their question.

At first I was a little skeptical to the concept of using Edchats for professional development. When you participate, you really need to pay attention to what is happening in the conversation. There are points in the conversation when individuals are commenting on more than one question. If you are not paying attention and reading, you could quickly loose the conversation.

Another reason I was skeptical was because you are only able to use 140 characters to get your point across. In order to participate in the conversation, you are only allowed to add one thought to the conversation. Sometimes it is beneficial in a conversation to elaborate on a thought. This is not possible when you only have a limited amount of characters you can use in your post.

Now having completed the professional development experience, I am more open to using it inside my classroom. I felt like I was engaged through out the whole experience. I almost felt like I was in a "learning high" applying what I know to the conversation. I felt exhausted after I finished because I was focused on reading and creating a response to communicate in the discussion. I also wanted to formulate my answer quickly so that I was able to read what other were saying.

I could see this learning opportunity beneficial to other students in the classroom because they wouldn't necessarily need to communicate their answer face to face. It is a little less intimidating when you do not have to speak in front of everyone else in the classroom. Also students are able to create a response at different speeds. Some students will quickly read/create responses. Some students will spend more time working on one response. Either way students are engaged in the discussion.

Now that I have participated in this learning opportunity, I am eager to use what I learned inside my classroom. Don't worry! I am not signing twenty-five eight year olds up with twitter. Our school has invested in Canvas- an online classroom program that has a great discussion feature. I am going to pose a question about a topic that we are learning and allow students to add their thoughts to the discussion. I think this will work even better than using Twitter because students will not be limited to 140 characters.

Have you participated in an Edchat? What were your thoughts?