Reflections on the first ALSIG Tweet Chat

Back in December 2020 the ALSIG was soft launched through a Tweet chat in the build-up to the Alt Online winter conference. We were quite perplexed on where to start as we knew everyone was feeling the pressure with their day jobs, but we were also acutely aware that we could learn from one another at this crucial time. So, we decided to facilitate a tweet chat to crowd source solutions and experiences that people might find useful when preparing to teach after the Christmas break.   The steering committee is quite an eclectic group with wide and varied experience across multiple sectors and we came up a number of themes over a 5-day period which ended up being named “5 days of Winter ALEs (Active Learning Enhancement sharing)”.

Over the five days we all took turns leading on the theme for the day utilising a different learning technology to not only curate the experiences of others, but to also give participants an opportunity to experience the tools. In day 1 we explored Mentimeter, Day 2 Nearpod, Day 3 Padlet, Day 4 Google Docs, and Day 5 we used Twitter to collate the biggest challenges with remote learning and teaching.

Overall, the tweet chat was a huge success with experiences and best practice shared across the UK and Ireland from Primary and Secondary Education to FE, HE and the private sectors which gave us the platform to announce the ALSIG to the ALT community and build new networks. Although we were all busy, we agreed that it was time well spent, we all learnt something new and as we worked as a true team, we shared the burden and created something special without burning ourselves out. We enjoyed it so much that we are planning a follow up this winter, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements in the autumn.

If you missed it or just want to relive the tweet chat visit the twitter memory page.

Richard Beggs

Chair ALSIG