I have been thinking about how I make my learning visible, and I am struggling with it because my experience in the system in which I work suggests that I should make my learning less visible. When your colleagues walk the other way when they see you coming, there might be a problem. The solution, of course, was to join ETMOOC because all the freaks and geeks (I am having buttons made) will be here, and I will appear normal.

So far, so good.

Recently, I joined PLPs tweetchat on Action Research. I am just starting my own AR for the last leg of a Master’s program, and although I had just signed off ETMOOC’s Twitter session, I couldn’t resist checking out @snbeach and company’s conversation.

I am a newcomer to the twittersphere, and tweet chats still make my head spin. How do people think so fast and track the conversation so fluently? One answer came as the clock neared the top of the hour with @snbeach reminding people to have their resources, materials and pre-constructed tweets at the ready. Huh?

I get that having key points, quotes, and links assembled prior to a tweet chat is a good idea, maybe even mandatory for a ‘thick’ conversation. But pre-constructed tweets? What is the purpose in having your thinking on a topic pre-recorded? Efficiency? Accuracy?  What is lost by being so prepared? What ideas are not acknowledged in the rapid-fire chat because they do not fit the script? How hard is it to respond to ideas that move in a completely different direction than what you have prepared? Are tweet chats events to validate your thinking or opportunities to explore ideas? How might pre-constructed tweets support or quell visible learning?

I am interested in what visible learning looks like. Tweet chat is first up. I hope you’ll help me think this through.