Whether you’ve participated in hundreds of Twitter chats, or it’s your first, these guidelines are to help you understand the structure of the #pedagome chats. These are pretty broad guidelines, so they’ll be a good place to start for other Twitter chat groups, as well.

What to Expect
The Twitter chat is, first-and-foremost, a live event that allows groups of people to discuss a common topic via the Twitter platform. Twitter chats will officially start and end at pre-designated times. While people can certainly go back and participate after the fact, it’s important to be at the main event for lively and engaged discussion.

We use a Q&A format that perpetuates conversation about a pre-selected topic. In most cases, the questions will be posted in advance to preview and review before the chat.

Our chat facilitator will launch the chat at the designated time, keep conversation moving forward, and participate in conversations. Facilitators will have knowledge of the topic at hand, but the main purpose of a Twitter chat is to get the group sharing and discussing. It’s the power of all our minds working together that makes a chat work!

Rule of Engagement
Be respectful. We are brought together by common interests, but also represent a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. It’s OK to not always agree. It’s not OK to bash or trash anyone’s views.

Useful Tips:

• Twitter has a character limit, which means responses need to be relatively brief. Get comfortable with the short and sweet!
• Make sure you “follow” the Twitter handles of people and groups listed in the Twitter chat invite.
• Questions will be Tweeted to the group at regular(ish) intervals to allow time to focus on each question. These will be designated as Q1, Q2, etc. When replying to a specific question, it is useful to designate your answers as A1, A2, etc.
• Chats will have a specific hashtag (e.g., #hashtag) associated with them. Hashtags are important in chats because theyhelp keep the conversation organized. Please use the designated hashtag in each of your chat replies.
• Try an organizational tool like Tweetdeck that can help you filter Twitter feeds. This will allow you to follow the chat more easily.
• Twitter chats often end up with a variety of threads of conversation. This can be confusing (and exhausting) if you’re not used to it. Don’t be intimidated if it feels like a lot the first couple of times – just go with the flow and don’t worry about catching absolutely everything!

Come and chat with #pedagome on the second Thursday of each month, 7pm MT!