Happy Birthday #LTHEchat: an invitation to the community

Created by @simonrae 

This week we celebrate the 2nd Birthday of #LTHEchat, the tweetchat about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Now into the third academic year, and a programme planned that extends well into 2017 with volunteer guests offering to lead themed chats, it is truly something to celebrate! In 2014 my dear colleague Chrissi Nerantzi and I via a skype call were reflecting on other shared projects and we came up with the idea of running a weekly chat as a pilot for a few months and see what happened. Well as you can see #LTHEchat is still here. What has made this work and become a sustainable model is the community that has grown to be #LTHEchat. The community not only spans the UK but also has participants from Europe, the US and Australia. Some are active participants and others 'listen in'. Every single one of you are valued members of the #LTHEchat community.

The community not only take part in the chat, some have contributed to the organising team. This group of people have worked incredibly hard behind the scene and are what makes the chats happen week on week! There are also four colleagues who who have shown sustained engagement, commitment, insight and open sharing to the LTHEchat community and they have been awarded the #LTHEchat Golden Tweeter Award: Professor Simon Lancaster, Neil Withnell, Simon Rae, Hala Mansour and Chris Jobling.

In December a group from the #LTHEchat community who have contributed to the organising team will be presenting at the 2nd Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference 2016 which takes place at Sheffield Hallam University. The paper is called:

‘With a little help from my followers’ – Facilitating the #LTHEChat
The presenters representing the organising team (yes there are more amazing people!) at the conference will be:

Chris Rowell – @Chri5rowell
Regent’s University London

Debbie Baff – @debbaff
Swansea University

Neil Withnell – @neilwithnell
University of Salford

Kate Soper – @KatesSoper
Manchester Metropolitan University

Chris Jobling – @cpjobling
Swansea University

Ian Tindal – @iantindalAnglia Ruskin University

Sue Beckingham – @suebecks
Sheffield Hallam University

Your invitation to contribute

This is where you as members of our #LTHEchat community can help us. We would be very grateful if you could complete this short online survey. Thank you!

SURVEY LINK

Calling all #LTHEchat folk please give us your views by filling in this little 5 minute survey https://t.co/5maiNGBc4j pic.twitter.com/uFbEZ85pHb

— LTHE Tweetchat (@LTHEchat) October 26, 2016

Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference 2016

It would also be wonderful to see you at the conference! You can find out more about the event by following @SocMedHE on Twitter and how to register here: https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/socmedhe/  

This paper and the other shot papers, workshops, thunderstorms and poster abstracts can be found here: https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/socmedhe/short-abstracts-2/ 

‘With a little help from my followers’ – Facilitating the #LTHEChat

This short paper will share the evaluation of the #LTHEchat and the impact of this on professional development for the organising teams and the chat participants. The twitter chat has shown there is demand to focus conversations on Teaching and Learning (T&L) in Higher Education (HE). The research will include results from a survey and semi-structured interviews, to identify the impact and value gained by active or silent participation, for the organisers and participants. In addition the chats themselves and the learning analytics of the Storify will be monitored and analysed to evaluate asynchronous engagement with archives of live chats.

The #LTHEchat, created by the community for the community, is a collaborative project on T&L in HE via tweetchats. “A tweetchat is a virtual meeting or gathering on Twitter to discuss a common topic. The chat lasts one hour and has questions to stimulate discussion” (Beckingham 2014). Each week there is a pre-determined topic with guests leading the chat.

Through #LTHEchat an online community of practice has evolved, including educators with a variety of roles. Drawing upon the literature, Wenger, Traynor and De Laat (2011) discuss five cycles of value creation in networks and communities, suggesting value can be:

• Immediate: answering/being answered. The #LTHEchat has created synchronous, Twitter activity. The discussion is right when you want it and, when a link is shared to a blog or article, the depth and breadth of shared knowledge increases. 
• Potential: gaining skills/knowledge/connections which we may call upon in future. The #LTHEchat provides a fertile ground for sharing learning experiences and forms collaborative working relationships. 
• Applied: taking something and applying to practice. Every conversation is applied to the HE context. 
• Realised: reflecting on new implementations. The chats allowed for the sharing of reflective practice in an open forum. 
• Reframing: in light of value gained, how does that impact on our view of success. While this is less easy to measure, the #LTHEchat has impacted on practitioners thinking about T&L. 

Wenger’s (2002) concept of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ is relevant as the #LTHEchat facilitators ‘bounce’ from the edge to the centre of the community and from live participation to catch-up via the tweets. The #LTHEchat guests join the community in the ‘hotseat’ to develop the conversation which encourages the community to grow (Ultralabs, 2015)

The joining of chats, e.g. #HEAchat and new initiatives such as #HEStudentQ have opened the chats to both staff and students providing new opportunities for informal learning.

This short paper will share some case studies and short vignettes from the research undertaken to highlight how #LTHEchat empowers a community of practice to embrace informal learning and has supported co-learners to take ownership of their continuing professional development. Finally it will provide participants with ideas on how they could develop their tweetchats for informal learning.

References:
Beckingham, S. (2014). Introducing tweetchats using #LTHEchat as an exemplar. http://www.slideshare.net/suebeckingham/introducing-tweet-chats-using-lth-echat-as-an-exemplar Accessed 27th May 2016

Ultralabs (2015) The online communities. https://sites.google.com/site/ultralabprojects/home/talking-heads/communities/presentation Accessed 27th May 2016

Wenger, E., Trayner, B., & de Laat, M. (2011). Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks : a conceptual framework. Open Universiteit. http://wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/11-04-Wenger_Trayner_DeLaat_Value_creation.pdf Accessed 27th May 2016

Wenger, E., Lave, J. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (2002) Legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. Eds Julia Clarke and Anne Hanson in Supporting Lifelong Learning, Vol. 1: Perspectives on Learning: Learning and Teaching Vol I. London: Routledge

The four dimensional conference #HEASTEM16

This post captures a collection of activities leading up to the Higher Education Academy (HEA) STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) Conference that took place in Nottingham. One of the key organisers was Dr Kay Hack who also tweets from @HEASTEM. 

HEA STEM Blog

One of the invited keynotes Professor Simon Lancaster who is an esteemed colleague of mine, was asked by Kay Hack from the HEA to write a blog post to precede the conference. He wanted to promote the use of social media (focusing on Twitter) in a way that would help other educators understand the value it can bring to the way we engage with conferences before, during and after an event. I was delighted when he contacted me to see if I was interested in co-writing this post. The result is 'The four dimensional conference' where we explored how Twitter can add additional dimensions to the conference experience. Both advocates of Twitter as a means of connecting and communicating with peers, it was interesting to explore our own use in relation to educational conferences. 

1. Presenter and audience interactions Twitter can render any presentation a communal event where the presenter encourages participants to tweet answers, comments, corrections and to engage in discussion. The participants themselves are able to use Twitter to crowd-source a rich and lasting record of the session.
2. Interconnected audience interactions Twitter can thoroughly intertwine the threads of parallel sessions creating interconnected collections of stories across the conference. Analogous information between different sessions can be picked up and synergies formed to take the discussions forward online and arrange face to face meetings. Imagine a set of threads constantly colliding in a ball of twine.
3. In person and virtual interactions
   The use of an event hashtag means that Twitter can facilitate the participation of people who could not attend the physical venue. By following the aggregated tweets, anyone can respond, raise questions, and provide links to associated information. Even the passive observer has an opportunity to develop their network by following interesting contributors to the conference Twitter stream.
4. Multiplicity of pre and post event interactions
   The conference does not need to end after the closing remarks. Twitter can keep the discussion going and through tools like Storify keep it accessible and alive for years to come. Presenters can tweet links to their presentations uploaded to Slideshare and indeed openly share via other social networks. Participants may choose to blog about the event and embed key Tweets to emphasise points made. Within this space readers can be encouraged to interact with the blog post by ending with a question or call for feedback/opinion using the comments. 

You can read the complete post here: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/blog/four-dimensional-conference-using-social-media-conferences


#HEAchat / #LTHEchat

Wednesday 27th January saw the inaugural pairing of #LTHEchat with the monthly #HEAchat. This new partnership I am certain will help to bring together even more educators to share their experience, practice and ideas; as well as provide a forum for discussion and debate. The theme chosen for this chat was 'the four dimensional conference'. During the hour the conversation was stimulated by the following six questions:

• Do you use social media at conferences? Tell us why & how or why not!
• What benefits have you experienced from using social media as a delegate or a presenter?
• What benefits have you experienced from using social media after events?
• How could organisers maximise the value of the 'social' at conferences? 
• What's your experience of attending conferences ‘virtually’ via hashtags/live-streams?
• How will you prepare for your next conference? 

Simon and I both interacted with the participants, and I hope added value to the dialogues as the questions were addressed. As a facilitator of this chat I sought to answer the questions myself but also to probe deeper the answers of those taking part. Keeping an eye open for new participants finding their feet in the conversation is also key. When you first start to take part in chats you can feel is if your tweets are simple disappearing into the noise. Having someone respond to your posts can make you feel welcomed and provide a sense of belonging. 

Aiding conversation

The chat was busy as participants replied to the questions and engaged in side conversations. For anyone joining part way through it was quite difficult to find the questions. I would always recommend during a chat that the Twitter account posting the questions does 'just' that and is not also used to retweet or respond to questions. That way participants can easily find the latest tweets which contain the questions.

Got lost in Wed's joint #LTHEchat & #HEAchat
Couldn't find questions 😕

Could they be posted simultaneously by both@LTHEchat and @HEA_chat?

— Simon Rae (@simonrae) January 30, 2016

Storify

The entire collection of tweets is captured in the Storify curated by Kandy Woodfield.


#HEASTEM16


Leading on from the tweetchat was the #HEASTEM16 conference itself. Below is Professor Simon Lancaster's keynote which did not disappoint. It's just a shame it wasn't live-streamed.

Key notes in instrumenting change from Simon Lancaster

Simon also went on to capture the tweets containing the conference hashtag using a tool called SocioViz. It was exciting to see new people tweeting and the network developing during the duration of the conference. I hope the blog post, the tweetchat and the encouragement during the HEA STEM Conference has given people both the confidence and enthusiasm to continue using Twitter beyond the activities this week.  

Bite sized CPD #LTHEchat - SHU Learning and Teaching TeachMeet

Learning and Teaching Exchange 2015

This one day event at Sheffield Hallam University had a very practical focus, looking at different ways of engaging students, using our physical and virtual spaces. The day incorporated sessions that shared some of the most innovative and inspirational academic practices from across the University – keynotes, workshops, debates, teachmeets and lots more.

Programme: Learning and Teaching Exchange Programme.pdf

Theme: Using Learning Spaces to Actively Engage Students.


Presenting

I presented at one of the teachmeets which were strictly timed 7 minute presentations. I'd also submitted a poster which you can see below. This was created using Piktochart which is an infographic poster tool that enables you to build a poster in sections. The advantage to this is that you can the use the sections as a slideshow and therefore present directly from Piktochart.

My presentation was on the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education tweet chat #LTHEchat. This is a weekly chat that takes place on Wednesday 8-9pm GMT. The virtual learning space for these discussion forums is Twitter. 

Introducing #LTHEchat from Sue Beckingham


The teechmeet was also recorded and you can see this below. 

Further info 

You can find our more about LTHEchat on the website http://lthechat.com/
and by following @LTHEchat and the hashtag #LTHEchat

#LTHEchat: A new approach to CPD for learning and teaching in higher education

I am very excited to ne leading a new collaborative project alongside Chrissi Nernatzi, David Walker and Peter Reed called #LTHEchat which is short for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Chat.

We are each from different higher education institutions: Sheffield Hallam University, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Sussex and the University of Liverpool; but have worked together on a variety of other projects including Bring Your Own Devices for Learning.

The chats will take place in Twitter using the hashtag #LTHEchat and will run each week on Wednesday between 8-9pm GMT.

Each will tweetchat will have a specific focus and it will be up to the community to decide what comes next. We will be inviting guest chat facilitators too and hope that you will join us for some speed CPD linked to learning and teaching. Students are also very welcome.

The slideshow below is an introduction to tweetchats. To find out more you can also visit http://lthechat.com/ and follow @LTHEchat on Twitter

Introducing tweetchats using #LTHEchat as an exemplar from Sue Beckingham

Date for your diary

The first tweetchat is on Wednesday 29th October and will be led by myself and Chriss Nernatzi. 

Our topic is: New ways to engage in bite-size professional development. This will provide us with an opportunity to reflect on where we are at the moment, individually and collectively and explore together fresh ideas to engage in new and exciting development activities that can be combined with workload and life and help us further develop our teaching practice.


Hope you can join us :-)

Visit: http://lthechat.com/