Right here, right now, there is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now, watching the world wake up from history

I sat in my eighth grade History class listening to Jesus Jones’ “Right Here, Right Now” blasting out of the teacher’s boombox. It was 1991 and the topic de jour was centered around how much the world had changed in the past 50 years. Pretty much everything has been invented already, I remember thinking as I sat there and listened to him drone on and on about “when he was a kid…” We were at the end of the age of newness, and I’d live the rest of my life with everything that we had right then.

I wonder if kids still think that? Sometimes I wonder if adults do?

So as I was teaching my eighth-grade class a little History of Technology last week, I cranked up the speakers and played them the same song. Other than enduring some harassment for choosing an “old” song, I think I was able to successfully facilitate the same discussion that I’d been a part of two decades earlier. Surprisingly, however, the students were probably more interested in the topic than I was – which completely caught me off guard. Most of the conversation that followed, however, was based around something that happened by coincidence while we were talking…

My TweetDeck popped up an #EdChat notification on my projection screen.

“What’s that”, one student asked. “It’s his Twitter account and he shouldn’t be using it in school”, replied another. The the barrage of comments started flowing; “I don’t use Twitter – it’s stupid. I use Yahoo! Messenger and send text messages”; “I use AIM”; “I use Facebook” “Facebook is stupid”; “All of my friends use MSN”; “MySpace is so much better than everything else”… I live for teachable moments, so this was almost too good to be true.

I could discuss every detail of the rest of that class, but it’s the epiphany I had afterward that I want to discuss here. Why, with all of the highly-developed communication programs that are (and have been) available, has Twitter taken off? Why does it seem like it’s the impetus for an educational revolution that’s gaining momentum every day? Why didn’t educators flock to an AOL Chatroom when it first came out? What was wrong with Yahoo! Chatrooms? MS NetMeeting? ICQ Chat? Orkut? Yuku? Freetel? (and the list goes on and on…) So why Twitter? Why here, why now?

In all honesty I haven’t got an answer to that question. I’m hoping some of you will be able to comment and help me out! Is this educational revolution relatively new? Has it been going on in certain private circles for decades? Am I part of something big, or is this all going to be a passing “fad” by mainstream educators? Will the education books look back at 2008-2009 and say “this is where the tide turned” – or will we simply be a blip on one of the waves? (no pun intended – although it was pretty good, eh?)

Why here, why now? Why Twitter, why #edchat? Why me and you?

#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!