In the glory days of Twitter, Twitter chats were hot🔥. A dedicated time each week to connect with educators around a topic. Over the years they seem to have died down or off for a variety of reasons. However, THEY ARE BACK. But not on Twitter. 🦋 Bluesky is the Twitter alternative with a strong education community growing. If you miss the positive conversations here is how to EduChat on Bluesky.
What is an EduChat - Formerly Twitter Chat?
An EduChat is a community conversation that takes place at a specific time. You participate in the chat by following a hashtag and using the hashtag in all of your posts.
#EduSky Community
Sign up for Bluesky. It is free and has a LOT MORE controls to keep you safe and allow you to control your content. When posting EDU content, include the hashtag #EduSky to reach educators who might not follow you. Unique to Bluesky are feeds. A feed is a custom algorithm that someone creates (instead of being forced into a billionaires algorithm.) Saving the EduSky feed allows you to quickly filter your experience for EDU conversations.
Join #EduSkyChat on Mondays
While the #EduSky conversation is all day every day, the only topic that drives it is education. This could be pre-k to college.
The #EduSkyChat is for 30 minutes on Mondays around a specific topic.
Search the #EduSkyChat hashtag or view the feed to find the upcoming chat topic. Follow Karly Moura and Cate Tolani who manage the chat schedule.
How to Participate in an EduChat
You first need to be online at the time of the chat. You can participate on your mobile or desktop. A chat is “restricted” to those who want to engage in conversation around a particular topic.
To accomplish this, a common hashtag is used for all posts during the chat.
Search for the hashtag in the sidebar (or click on the hashtag if it is in a post on your feed.) This will show you “Top” posts on the hashtag. Be sure to click on the tab that says “Latest.” You will want to refresh (Control R). This will require you click back over to the “Latest” tab.
Follow the Conversation On a Feed
A feed is a custom algorithm. Anyone can make one. This creates a filtered view of Bluesky. Some EduChat moderators will have created a feed for the chat. tinyurl.com/eduskychat goes to the feed created by Michael Freeman.
Try deck.blue
Almost a clone of Tweetdeck, deck.blue organizes your Bluesky feeds. Click the plus icon on the left sidebar to add a column for both the hashtag and for the moderator.
Participating in the Chat
At the designated time, refresh the site to find the greeting by the moderator.
Create a new post (press N) introducing yourself. INCLUDE THE CHAT HASHTAG.
And of course REPLY to others in the chat to welcome them!
No Other Hashtags
Please remember that a hashtag is a topic people are following. Bluesky allows users to create feeds to customize their view. When you use a hashtag you are pushing your post into that view. EduChats are voluntary conversations. Including other hashtags forces others into the conversation.
A chat can be very fast paced. #EduSkyChat logged 900 posts. For a 30 minute chat that is a lot of posts! Imagine if 900 #EduSkyChat posts flooded the #EduSky feed? They would drown out the normal #EduSky conversations and posts.
Q1 is Question 1
After a couple of minutes be on the lookout for the moderator to post the question. It will start with Q1 to indicate question 1.
Do NOT reply.
A1: Start A New Post
When ready to give your answer start a NEW POST (press N) and start the answer post with A1:
This allows chat participants to know you’re answering question 1.
Reply to Answer Posts
An EduChat is not screaming to cyberspace. We are having a CONVERSATION so please comment on the posts of others. “I agree.” “Love this.” “Hey there friend, great answer.”
Tip: for replies that don’t add content to the answer I do NOT use the chat hashtag.
Add additional content to the person’s answer.
“This is great. I also have a game I play with my students called Jeopardy. They love to use it for review. #EduSkyChat”
In this example I DO include the hashtag because I think others in the chat would like to see this additional content. This is a tip and not a rule.
The Conversation Continues
After the conversation for question 1 has been permitted, the moderator will post a 2nd question and start the post with Q2:
Q2 is Question 2
Look for the post by the moderator that starts with Q2 to indicate the 2nd question.
Again, START A NEW POST. However, this time reply with A2:
And of course the hashtag.
Tips for Surviving an EduChat
- You do not have to read or reply to all of the posts.
- There can be a lot of posts, do not feel guilty about refreshing and ignoring a whole chunk of them.
- You can respond to any question anytime.
While people are chatting on Q3 you can still answer A1: - Lurking is okay.
- Liking a post is appreciated. Hit the heart!
- If you forgot the hashtag, REPLY TO YOURSELF with the hashtag.
- Relax and enjoy! Just make sure you include the hashtag on your posts!
