Twitter Chats... Don't forget to....
I took part in my first Twitter Chat, or so I thought that I did. Thursday night I got everything set up for using my twitter account I set up AGES ago, got logged into tweetdeck, searched for a hashtag or two to get started with the chat. Briana and I decided we would both go on with the #EdTechMath, since we teach math and all. So I set it up, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. Looked like that one wasn't going to be happening. So then we switched over to #ICEilchat. When it started, I quickly jumped in. I answered every question, and even responded to some great tweets. It wasn't until the next morning that I had some idea that my tweets weren't seen. Briana told me she didn't see my post anything to the chat and just assumed I joined a different one. Hmm. What was I doing wrong? I saw them on tweetdeck, why couldn't she see them?
I went back onto twitter today to take a look at the chat feed and come up with a reason Bri didn't see me. I saw a wonderful link to a google doc with all of the responses to Thursday's chat. Check them out here. When I went back to the chat I saw our chat played out in a storyline. You can check out the chat in the slide show at the bottom of this post.
So here is my tweekdeck page. I added in a column for just a user, myself, so that I could figure out this mystery. So while you are staring at it, do you see what I did wrong? What is different about my @kapester then any of the other names on twitter? Do you see that lock next to my name? Yup. That is what did it.
The lock next to my name, meant that I had a privacy setting on my twitter account. I didn't even realize I put that on there. So, I guess that explains why no one saw my posts. I basically told twitter no one can view my tweets. Well, I went back in and changed my settings shortly after taking my screen shot. And now you can see my tweets in the stream of the #ICEilchat.
So does that mean that this whole experience was a bust, and that I need to do another chat just to get the "full" effect? No. I still got something out of the twiterchat. It was very fast paced! I don't know how I really feel about that aspect of the twitter chat. It was kind of annoying at times to see someone post about a previous question versus what we were currently answering. I am sure that is kind of the point about the chat. So I came up with a bullet list of things to know about a twitter chat for future reference.
I went back onto twitter today to take a look at the chat feed and come up with a reason Bri didn't see me. I saw a wonderful link to a google doc with all of the responses to Thursday's chat. Check them out here. When I went back to the chat I saw our chat played out in a storyline. You can check out the chat in the slide show at the bottom of this post.
So here is my tweekdeck page. I added in a column for just a user, myself, so that I could figure out this mystery. So while you are staring at it, do you see what I did wrong? What is different about my @kapester then any of the other names on twitter? Do you see that lock next to my name? Yup. That is what did it.
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| Screen capture of tweekdeck |
So does that mean that this whole experience was a bust, and that I need to do another chat just to get the "full" effect? No. I still got something out of the twiterchat. It was very fast paced! I don't know how I really feel about that aspect of the twitter chat. It was kind of annoying at times to see someone post about a previous question versus what we were currently answering. I am sure that is kind of the point about the chat. So I came up with a bullet list of things to know about a twitter chat for future reference.
- Make sure your account isn't set to private mood.
- Log in early so that you can have the screen set up in time.
- Add the chat moderator as a separate column in tweetdeck so that you can see the questions at the same time as the real feed of the chat.
- Go back after the chat has ended to check out a story line of the night. This makes it a lot easier to follow along with what people were saying based around the questions since some people came in and out of questions through out the chat.
- Keep your answers short and sweet.
- Don't forget the # with EVERY post.
- Answer what you can when you can.
- Retweet if it was something you want to think back on later, or thought was a great response.
- Reply to others and build the conversation!
So there are the main take-away for my firs Twitter chat. Next time, ill actually feel like a true contributor.😉
Karen,
ReplyDeleteI too participated in this chat session and as I began reading your blog post, I didn't remember seeing you on the Twitter during the event. I remember seeing Briana's name, though. I figured that maybe I just didn't see your name because it was so fast paced. As I read your blog further, I realized that was the issue that you were discussing--that you weren't showing up during the chat. That is good to know about the lock icon for privacy settings! I would have been confused about that too, so thanks for the heads up if this were to ever happen to me in the future, because I am Twitter-illiterate! Where did you find the link for the Google Doc of everyone's responses from the night? Was it just posted on Twitter under that hashtag? That is neat to see because I feel as though I missed more than half of the responses because the chat is so fast paced. I don't think I particularly enjoy the fast paced structure of the chat because I feel as though answers and responses were often repeated. I did not want to be that person that says the same thing that someone already said, but it was impossible to keep up with the pace of reading everyone's responses. Thanks for putting together a list of helpful tips and reminders for Twitter chats. That would have been helpful before participating in the Twitter chat for my first time.
Danielle
I agree, the list would have helped before hand. But now it is a great tool that I could use with my students if I wanted to make a twitter chat for them to partake in.
DeleteAwesome list of things to remember, Karen! You really learned a ton! If you don't mind, I might borrow it for my students. There is a lot to remember for a chat, but once you get the hang of things...I really like having a copy of the transcript too so I can do as you suggested, go back and check something out that I didn't have time for. It was my first chat so I read and reread the directions a million times, made sure I didn't have the privacy setting on. Good for you that you went back and figured it out.
ReplyDeleteCarol G.
Please use the list! Feel free to add to it as well. I think that makes a difference if we can provide students with our own first hand experiences and show that even we can run into issues when learning something new.
DeleteI'm digging your post this week, Karen. A great example of how we learn from error and not just yourself. Your experience was useful to me too. So thanks for not just throwing your hands up and saying, "Well, that didn't work," and persevering to figure it out. I didn't know there was a privacy setting! That's a great idea to make a Tweetdeck column just for the moderator. Brilliant, in fact. I like to use TweetDeck instead of my phone app or the web app on my computer. For some reason Twitter doesn't refresh as quickly as TweetDeck, so it's easier to fall behind waiting for the app to refresh the conversation. I need to remember retweeting good ideas too. I was liking them as a record to return to the ones I thought were good ideas. But why not retweet to share those good ideas with my followers too? Do you know how they made the GDoc of the chat? That looks very useful. I appreciate your idea to intentionally return to the chat after it's over. I found there were a few people who responded to some of my tweets afterwards and I didn't see them until hours later. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your experience this week! ~Doug
ReplyDeleteOne of the participants created the google doc of all the questions to place in one spot. The story line was created with a different app to run all the tweets together.
DeleteFantastic list! Echoing your colleagues I, too love that you persevered and shared your list of "lessons learned". I always end up going back to the chat/Storify the day after to reread and catch up on anything I might have missed. I still comment days after to add to the conversation. Well done!
ReplyDeleteGlad to help a fellow colleague! It was definitely funny when you walked into school on Friday and we were talking about it. I thought I was the crazy one (glad to see it was you =P). Thanks for the tips for upcoming chats! I do agree with all of them. I also think that I would add to this list that coming in with some growth mindset is helpful! I think I came in with the mentality I wouldn't enjoy it and thus I didn't really enjoy it, but I think being more prepared going forward and thinking that it will be fun, interesting, meaningful and successful that I will get a lot more out of it. Great post!
ReplyDeleteGreat point about mindset, Briana. I also appreciate that you were honest about yours going in and recognize that it's possible to change!
DeleteThis is a fantastic list. I will admit, I don't know how to add the moderator as a separate person on the Tweet Deck, but I will figure it out! I tried to go back on my Twitter chat to see a storyline and couldn't figure that out either. I'm so glad to see we're all learning this together and able to help each other so much!
ReplyDelete