Spreading “uPD” via #edchat… an Idea!

First of all, what the heck am I talking about? uPD? I’ve been using this term for a few months now when I refer to “unofficial Professional Development”. In other words professional development that I won’t get any compensation or credit for, but something that will help me. #edchat is the hashtag for a discussion that happens every Tuesday on the Twitter platform. Specific information on #edchat can be found here, but I’ll give a quick overview anyhow:

#edchat is an event that happens twice every Tuesday – 12:00PM and 7:00PM Eastern Time. Topics for the chat are submitted and voted on by anybody, whether they are wallflowers or verbose speed-tweeters. Tonight’s topic happens to be Does Homework Improve Learning?. Anybody on Twitter can join the conversation by simply searching for #edchat (so you can see what’s being said) and include the hastag #edchat in your tweets. Your messages will show up with all of the others. Yes, it’s really that easy. The most amazing aspect of #edchat is the wide variety of people, experiences, and opinions you get in a very short amount of time. Often these conversations will last for 2-3 days afterwards in the forms of replies and/or direct messages.

Back on topic now… One of the thoughts that was brought up over and over again last week during the 7PM (EDT) #edchat was essentially “we’re preaching to the choir – how do we get others (classroom teachers who aren’t already knee-deep in technology implementation) into the discussion?” And I figured out today how I’m going to do it.

I teach in a middle school technology classroom with a lab area and 19 computers. I’ve got a mounted projector and a big white screen (nothing interactive yet – my Wiimote project never worked as planned.) What I plan to try this year is to open my lab up for district teachers on Tuesday nights. I’d leave at 3:30, grab some dinner and run errands, whatever – and head back to the building by 5:00. Open the lab up from 5:00-9:00 for any teacher in the district who might need help or wants to talk technology. At 6:30, however, the lights would dim, the projector would come on, and I’d give a demo about #edchat and how Twitter can be used for uPD. By 7:00 we’d be able to have user accounts set up for any newbies (unlike @oswego98) and anyone in the room could participate in the chat. Standing in front of a large group of people and trying to explain what to do with Twitter can be challenging – but giving them a real demo that is relevant to their career and interests and then allowing them full control to participate themselves… sounds like a plan!

I’m actually thinking that I might get 4-5 teachers from my own building the first week… wishful thinking, maybe? But if the following week I could double that (by offering it to anyone in the district) I’d have a significant number of people in my district exposed to both Twitter and #edchat. How many will use it on a weekly basis? I don’t know – maybe 3 or 4? Hopefully more? But it would be amazing to see and hear people’s reactions when they finally realize what Twitter can do. I certainly wish I would’ve had a “Twitter-tutor” when I began. It will also give me a dedicated night to organize my lab, try any software/hardware experiments, discuss technology with other teachers, and write blog posts or work on other online projects.

Has anyone else ever experimented with opening up labs after school for other teachers? Or offering “free, unofficial professional development” for fun? My hopes are that I’ll meet some other people like myself, have some fun, and learn a ton. What does everyone think? Will I need to order pizzas and wings to get people there?

For more information on #edchat, check out Mary Beth’s blog post. I hope to speak to all of you on Tuesday!