For my recent grad class, I was asked to participate in the #ndedchat on Twitter. When he asked us to do this, I had no idea what he was talking about. I always thought that hashtags were meant as a side note, like #sorrynotsorry or #gymstatus and stupid other things like that (they are stupid, but I used them
because they're fun). It turns out, hashtags have a real purpose! On Wednesdays nights at 9:00 PM, I got on my Twitter and watched for tweets with #ndedchat at the end. Now, it was my first time and I was not very good at it. I successfully participated by doing what they call "lurking," and I sat on my computer frantically trying to keep up with the conversation while mentally filtering out all of the random tweets from other people that I follow. I managed to add one significant (or at least I thought it was significant) tweet to the conversation, but I mostly felt like I had only lurked. Ha. Try saying that 3 times fast. Lurked, lurked, lurked. Anywho, I felt like I had gotten some valuable information from my lurking, but I didn't feel like I had actually joined the conversation.
So the next day, I searched out our school's Twitter Queen, Rachelle, and told her about my fail at Twitter Chatting. She laughed and asked if I had TweetDeck. Uh, no I didn't have TweetDeck. What the heck is TweetDeck? She graciously took me to my room, added TweetDeck to my Apps on my Chrome browser, logged me in, and showed me how to make columns. These amazing columns allow me to see only what's being posted to each hashtag. It's amazing. This is what it looks like:
When I'm following #ndedchat, I don't have to filter through every other tweet, I just have to watch my #ndedchat column. It's not as pretty as my Twitter feed, but it's much easier to follow and now I can actually add to the discussion.
Those other hashtags are #ed521msu (for class) and #engchat (awesome for English teachers). Since then, I've begun following #digitaled, #7thchat, and #nerdybookclub. I don't make it to these chats every week and most of the time I lurk, but I learn things from it every week.
I think I'll continue lurking and maybe even become bold enough to tweet my little thoughts out there.
Even though a generation separates us, I am so on the same page with you on this Twitter lurking! Thanks for sharing.
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